Where is the new US guns?

I was just reading that the XM8 got canceled. Then if it got canceled where are the new rifles? Anyone know that?

What new rifles? The XM8 WAS the new rifle. They only produced a few prototypes and they probably either put them into storage or destroyed them.

Although there were high hopes that the XM8 would become the Army's new standard infantry rifle, the project was put on hold in mid 2005, and was formally cancelled on October 31, 2005.

- Wikipedia>XM8 search

en.wikipedia.org...

Did I give credit enough to that mods?

[edit on 15-9-2006 by wildcat]


[edit on 15-9-2006 by wildcat]

I'm happy it was cancelled. Don't get me wrong M-8 would be decent and reliable weapon but it didn't solve many fundamental problems - especially the ineffectivity of 5.56 ammo fired from short barreled rifles. And proposed M-8 main variant would have even shorter barrel than M-4 I think.

Although the design of the XM-8 was advanced, and quite impressive, its unit cost was daunting, and replacing the beloved M-16 is no small task. I dont really think the M-16 has reached the end of its usefulness as lnog as it is upgraded accordingly.

When we truly need a "new", we'll know it.

Originally posted by longbow
especially the ineffectivity of 5.56 ammo fired from short barreled rifles. And proposed M-8 main variant would have even shorter barrel than M-4 I think.

Actually outside of Vietnam where the 5.56mm was introduced the smaller round was superior to the 7.62mm against body armour given the rounds tendancy to tumble. In fact the Soviets designed the AK-74 with a smaller 5.45mm round for that very reason.

AK-74

[edit on 16-9-2006 by danwild6]

My favorite for replacing the M-4/M-16 would be the M468 Barrett.

M468

Heh, they might as well switch to the FN SCAR for Army...

It's a great little weapon as far as I can see and they are already buying M16A2's from Belgium anyway!

iirc they have been having or were having a procurement evalution computition between the xm-8, m468, fn2000 and one or two other pieces for the next weapon. The 6.8mm and the 6.5 seem to be the best options for the new rifle as its between the 5.56mm and the 7.62mm finding the middle ground which imo is the next local and maybe last step for the techology kinda like the last of the cased black ground rounds of 11mm and 13mm before there was a jump of tech. Tech has seemed to hit a plateu for quite sometime now and new tech is very very very slow indevelopment for the common soldier.

my pick would be the m468 with its 6.8mm round.

Actually outside of Vietnam where the 5.56mm was introduced the smaller round was superior to the 7.62mm against body armor given the rounds tendancy to tumble. In fact the Soviets designed the AK-74 with a smaller 5.45mm round for that very reason.

5.56 was designed for small game hunting, it was not designed as a military round. It was in fact redesigned and adopted for military use as a defense LOS only caliber.

The reason Soviets designed their own small caliber round was do to economics. It was CHEAPER to crank out 5.45s and it also increased ammo load for the troops. Considering the sheer size/structure of their motorized infantry divisions, they decided that high penetration round will not be necessary do to available MG support, so LOS round was deemed as acceptable.

Soviet troops in Afghanistan disagree with that notion, and convoy troops were regularly forced to "borrow" AKMS type that truck drivers had in their rigs.

Round fragmentation has nothing to do with body armor penetration. Level III is supposed to stop a 148gr 7.62 round at 2750 f/s. The problem is that not all 7.62 rounds are created equal. While various soft core hunting rounds are stopped, mil spec steel cores are not.

Such steel cores are not designed to have AP capability, they are made from stamped steel like 65G and hardened to 65HRC. AP cores are made from high carbon U12A steel.

Soft body armor does not stop steel core rounds. The jacketing peels of and the core continues to travel through the target. That's where the core caliber plays a decisive role.

This is where Level IV comes in. Armor plates are designed to stop all steel core rounds and AP rounds up to 166gr with minimum velocity of 2850f/s.

That includes 7N23 and 7N22. Unfortunately they have repeatedly proved to go through 16mm armor plates like through butter.

Further more, modern non-AP "enchanted penetration" rounds defeat 10mm APC grade armor from 100m with 100% success rate.

Level IV plates simply don't stand a chance against a square hit, high angle deflection shots, sure.

What new rifles? The XM8 WAS the new rifle. They only produced a few prototypes and they probably either put them into storage or destroyed them.

Nope, it's a "restyled" G36.

My favorite for replacing the M-4/M-16 would be the M468 Barrett.

And who's supposed to pay 2,500 dollars per copy? Let me put it this way, considering the type of folks those guns are supposed to be used against, I garantee you, instead of trying to shoot them, just give them $2500 each and the war is over.

Considering caliber/configuration options SCAR would be a definite improvement.

so what will be the new gun?

anybody plz answer this directly

We don't know yet

I like the Xm-416 design.

XM-416

For the Special Forces, FN-SCAR-L and SCAR-H are pretty good weapons as well.

Shattered OUT...

Perhaps they should be armed with:



take pride! it's a daisy!

I hope the new weaponw on look too much like the AR-15...it will still seem like they are using the M16 if they do...

reply to post by wildcat


A brand new CBAR (curved barrel assault rifle) has been unveiled,