Overheating seems to be the issue on this, 9, 30 rnd magazines in the space of 30 minutes, on full automatic, no rifle or machine gun can cope with this IMO, spare barrels for the GPMG, Should be plenty after the cold war rundown, the rifle on the other hand might be more tricky, poor fire discipline seems to be the other issue ...IMO

this just makes me ill the govement could have given these guys hk416 or hk 417 where overheating is less of a problem. and i am so glad i am not there and in military i would be either dead or in prison because if i thought e\nemy was using mosque as sanctuary i would level it. same if it was a church or buddist or hindu shrine. sorry but to me its just a building my faith is in me not some old moldy structure.

Better still this Baby tried and tested for many a year inoperations

Really what do people expect? The amount of rounds cycled through would heat up most rifle barrels. The big difference between our rifle and what the Taliban uses is that the ak-47 requires very little up keep. The ak will fire after just about anything. A case of a old weapon being superbly engineered.

Originally posted by hangedman13
Really what do people expect? The amount of rounds cycled through would heat up most rifle barrels. The big difference between our rifle and what the Taliban uses is that the ak-47 requires very little up keep. The ak will fire after just about anything. A case of a old weapon being superbly engineered.

Yeah, but that's an unfair comparison. The AK-47 never was issued with it's own built in cuisinart or espresso dispenser.

Originally posted by Zosynspiracy

American arrogance is funny.

I'm not arrogant... I'm a realist. Some of our stuff will run rings around the best that any one in the world can produce. But in War.. real war, you only have to get it right once to take it out. The people on the superiority soapbox sometimes forget about that.

I spent the better part of 20 years learning and knowing what the USSR had in the way of missile technology. Some of it was laughable. Some of it damn lethal. Just like the US.

Our problem... speaking as a US person... is that too many times a weapons budget will balloon out of proportion compared to it's usefulness. The same thing happens in other fields... such as NASA and Space exploration. How many times have we had to go fix that damn toilet on the ISS?



[edit on 11-10-2009 by RoofMonkey]

I shot over 3000 rounds from my M249 in less than 20 minute before, barrel was hot as hell but it still functioned (weapons maintenance is life or death so we keep out weapons clean as ****, we even have company down time every day for weapons maintenance.) If anything happened, I wouldn't be able to perform POPS or take it apart to fix it. Now the M4 and M16, I shot just about 5 mags and it the barrel started to burn my sling and started smoking and started to burn the leaves that the barrel was touching. Same with M240B and the M2, after a while the weapon became extremely hot and failed. We lost 2 M2 one time on a training range (internal components just broke, even our onsite armorer couldn't fix the problem), and a couple of them blew up in Iraq in sector.

For urban warfare, they are fine. But when you take them to jungle or desert, they will usually jam up. The spacing inside the weapon itself is so small, any buildup of carbon, dirt, or anything will cause a malfunction. If you look at the AKs, DShK, and other weapons they have, the spacing inside is more than enough to help counter buildups. I seen and shot AKs that were so dirty, we all believe it wouldn't even fire but it shot like a cherry.

There are a number of things that are painfully obvious.

The FIRST is that one never, ever assumes a fixed position. Alesia was a fixed fortification. The Alamo was a fixed fortification.

A fixed fortification is nothing more than a fixed target. A fixed fortification or fixed position renders useless the most effective principle of warfare - freedom of movement.

To man a wall, a bunker, a window, or trench, one is exposed to something. With no ability to maneuver, one becomes a fixed target.

Graves are fixed positions.

The second problem is that we tend to fire on automatic. First, you can't hit **** on automatic. It burns ammo, and it burns up weapons. The faster you shoot the M-16 variants, the faster they crud up.

Does this tell anyone anything?

Overheating? How about overshooting. If you burn a magazine with 25-30 rounds, how many hits did you get?

There are times you need fire superiority, but those times are in the first few moments of engaging. After that, it should be all about getting hits and downing targets.

Hits are the only thing that counts, and our .223 doesn't have enough 'grunt' to reach out and touch someone with any degree of accuracy beyond 200 meters. Oh, you can hit stuff if you're in a good frame and have time - but in combat - things are a bit hurried and you are more excitable.

Yes, SF procures its own weapons. Oddly, they've largely reverted to the old Model 1911, and many carry the tried and true M-14 variant, as it has the 'grunt' to knock the hell out of whatever it hits.

AND it's very, very reliable under a number of combat conditions.

I blame this on the commanders.

For putting their troops in fixed positions and permitting the to become fixed targets.

And for not getting them the weapons that meet the need.

In mountainous country, the .223 is as useless as tits on a tomcat. In desert country, the .223 is useless as tits on a nun.

I never let anyone fire but the very first clip on full auto. After that, we were picking targets.

Not shooting.