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Subject:
Little Bullets Lose Respect
James Dunnigan
12/11/2005 9:53:43 PM
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The U.S. Army?s cancellation of the
XM8 (a replacement for the M16) reflects disenchantment with the 5.56mm
round, more than anything else. While the 5.56mm bullet was OK when
used in an automatic weapon, it is much less useful when you have so
many troops who know how to shoot, and can hit targets just as easily
with single shots. In addition to better shooting skills, the troops
also have much better sights, both for day and night use. It?s much
more effective to fire less often, if you have troops who can do that
and hit what they are shooting at with the first shot. Most American
troops can.
Moreover, the 5.56mm round is less effective in
urban fighting, where you often want to shoot through doors and walls.
The 5.56mm round is not as effective at doing this as is the heavier
7.62mm bullet. And the troops have plenty of 7.62mm weapons available,
in order to compare. There is the M240 medium machine-gun. While this
7.62mm weapon is usually mounted on vehicles, it is often taken off and
used by infantry for street fighting. Lots of 1960s era 7.62mm M14
rifles have also been taken out of storage and distributed. While used
mainly as sniper rifles, the snipers do other work on the battlefield
as well, and the troops have been able to see that the heavier 7.62mm
round does a better job of shooting through cinder block walls, and
taking down bad guys with one shot. Too often, enemy troops require
several 5.56mm bullets to put them out of action.
In a
situation like that, it makes more sense to carry a heavier round. The
question is, which one? The army has been experimenting with a 6.8mm
round, but now some are demanding that the full size 7.62mm round be
brought back. There are M16 type weapons that use the full size 7.62mm
round (and the lower powered AK-47 7.62mm round). The new SOCOM SCAR
rifle can quickly be adapted to using all of the above by swapping out
the barrel and receiver. Could be that the army is going to wait and
see what SOCOM decides to do.
The other big complaint about the
M16 is it?s sensitivity to fine dust, as found in Iraq and, to a lesser
extent, Afghanistan. This stuff causes the rifle (and the light
machine-gun version, the M249), to jam. Troops have to be cleaning
these weapons constantly. Another problem with the M249 is that most of
the ones in service are very old, and in need of a replacement (with
new M249s, or a new weapon design.) The XM8 solved much of the ?dust
sensitivity? problem, but part of the problem was the smaller round.
A
decision on the army?s new assault rifle will probably come sooner,
rather than later, because the troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan
are making a lot of Internet noise over the issue.
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