New Army Carbine Competition

[HaulRoad]

Is Colt entering a new rifle in the Army carbine competition?If they lose the contract and the M4A1 is replaced...I'd say that would leave Colt at a market disadvantage.Anybody heard anything about this or have shot a M4A1?

[dfariswheel]

I haven't heard anything about a new carbine program.
Just about every week someone announces that the military is going to adopt a new rifle or a new program to buy a new rifle is starting.
The military is ALWAYS experimenting with and testing new weapons.

The military has made it crystal clear that they will not replace the M16-M4 series unless and until something is invented that offers a significant improvement over the current weapons.
The key word is "significant". They're talking about some new type of ammo or some new material to make rifles out of, or some new operating system that is superior enough to warrant spending the billions of dollars necessary to make the change.

The Special Ops people have been experimenting with different weapons, but the numbers they'd buy would be comparatively very few, and would be limited to them.

[HaulRoad]

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/...roversy-03289/

...is an excellent overview of the program, and details on some vendors from colt, s&w, Remington, etc. Updates are at the bottom. The Army times has also reported on it. Most interesting to me is that the Colt COO responded that they have a piston operated system much like the H&K that they pitched to the Army in the 60s!I expect conventional army will remain with a 5.56 chambering for NATO compliance and for bulk ammo stockage for the forseeable future for most platforms.

[dfariswheel]

I would caution about the Army Times and Defense Industry Daily.
Defense Industry seems to have a history of being unable to properly separate companies advertising from what the military is really doing.

The Army Times is rather notorious for hyping programs that fail to materialize.
As example, a few years ago they had big stories about a new military program to select a new pistol to replace the M9 Beretta.
The military said there was no such program and announced that they had released a contract to buy an additional 500,000 M9 pistols from Beretta.

The bottom line is, the 5.56mm and the M16-M4 will remain in use until something revolutionary is invented.
In spite of very heavy handed advertising by H&K, no rifle yet invented offers anything of enough value to warrant spending billions of dollars on it.

[Brevity]

There are always looks by the military at new technology. Colt has a gas-piston field mod available IF it is wanted. Right now they are subcontracted to FN to fill the military orders. (One of the reasons commercial Colts have become more abundant).

Right now the technology has been geared more towards making the M855 cartridge more effective at greater distances. In this the Marines have one philosophy, and have adapted a bullet configuration that pushes the Hague Convention to the limit with an 'open-cavity' 62 grain cartridge that reaches out to 600 meters. The US Army went a different route with their 'green' bullet made with a Bismuth core with a steel penetrator for a cap. The jacket peels away forming a nasty hollowpoint and the core penetrates everything else out to about 600 meters.

M855A1 'Green' cartridge.
Tactical-Life.com » M855A1 “green” ammo shipped to Afghanistan.




Marine SOST MK 318 Mod 0
USMC adopt new 5.56mm MK318 MOD 0 ammunition | The Firearm Blog




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