A greater range is only useful if you can identify the target at a greater range. In much of the world you can't really see that far because of terrain or structures.

The dover devel was not adopted because it cost money when there were literaly tens of thousands of M-2s in the inventory. None of the weapons discussed have any significant advantage over one another in practicle terms. The 12.7x99 with heavy core ammo WILL out perforate any available Ruski 14.5 ammo and the Ruski's are to poor to make that type of ammo because of it's expencive nature. All heavy MGs are obsolite and have been for some time. Witness the demise of the FN BRG in 15.5x106 mm! It had twice the effective AP range of a 20 mm cannon or three times the range of any other HMG, for the same weight as a M-2HB. The weapon that is head and shoulders above any HMG is the 40 mm Automatic Grenade Machine Gun. The newes types fire smart ammo that is litteraly hundreds of time more effective than any HMG to a longer range! 2,200 m compaired to 16-18 hundred meters for a HMG. It will also kill any Main Battle Tank in the world, something that no HMG can dream of. In the future, there are projects for smatr projectiles in 40 mm that would give it a one shot one kill capasity against tanks and indaviduals at that 2,200 m or greater range. Does anyone think a sniper AMR or HMG or any variant of one could do that?

I can believe that some 40mm grenade hits in the right spots can disable a tank, but not reliably unless you shower it with hits. One shot one kill? How? Displacedjim

"The 12.7x99 with heavy core ammo WILL out perforate any available Ruski 14.5 ammo" Some of these 'facts' simply are not true....

If that one hit could land so that the HEAT jet perforated the commander's hatch and or at such an angle that it went into the ammunition bins. Do you think an tank could survive the resulting ammo fire? With smart/guided rounds, why would it take more than one to kill any tank on the planet. It is absolutely impossable to put enough armor of the entire top of the tank to give it imunity to even 40 mm heat rounds. Part two, The Ruski armor piercing BZ round is steel cored and has conciderably less perforation power than any of the various tungsten cored .50 cal rounds. SLAP is another level all together. There are simply no 14.5 mm ammo available from any source that will equal or exceed any of the HC .50 ammo available from many sources! I recomend that you read Janes ammunition handbook for more info.

"With smart/guided rounds, why would it take more than one to kill any tank on the planet. It is absolutely impossable to put enough armor of the entire top of the tank to give it imunity to even 40 mm heat rounds." This may or may not be, but you could use slats.

or relatively light ERA. But a tank can probably see you from beyond that range and fire a 120mm shell down your throat.

"The newes types fire smart ammo that is litteraly hundreds of time more effective than any HMG to a longer range! 2,200 m compaired to 16-18 hundred meters for a HMG. It will also kill any Main Battle Tank in the world, something that no HMG can dream of." ---- "If that one hit could land so that the HEAT jet perforated the commander's hatch and or at such an angle that it went into the ammunition bins. Do you think an tank could survive the resulting ammo fire? With smart/guided rounds, why would it take more than one to kill any tank on the planet. It is absolutely impossable to put enough armor of the entire top of the tank to give it imunity to even 40 mm heat rounds." ---- Okay, so are you saying there's some weapon system out there that is one shot/one kill with 40mm grenades on MBTs (and if so, then I ask again what is it, because it sure isn't anything I've heard of), or are you saying you think it is theoretically possible to develop one? Because your first post pretty clearly said the former (hence my request for clarification), while your second post pretty clearly says the latter. Displacedjim

How do "slats" help? The newest 40 mm rounds with precision shaped charges can perfoate well over 4" of RHA.

With current technology the GMG type of weapon firing a burst of grenades will with modern FC do a tank. I recomend reading the write up on GMG's in Janes International Defence Review. The H&K gun had some very good data. In the near future guided 40 mm rounds will be available. 40 mm was chosen for the very first guided test article in 1970-1 and test fired in 1972. Current miniaturzation efforts are well beyond what is needed to do this. I recomend that you look up Micro air vehicals on google or some such to get an idea what is going on there. As to war head tech, newer heat/SFF types are imune to the effects of any reactive armor less than twice it's caliber not backed by heavy armor. Turrit roof armor does not count it is just too thin. If you look in Janes Ammo handbook, you can find the first listing for a lo-vel 40 mm round with a MV of 100 M/S and a mass of 250 grames. You can fire it from any GL-M-79/203/H&K type etcetera. That payload with miniaturized guidance like Javelin could make life tough for tanks, don't you think?