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New Army caliber?

It makes the rounds every once in a while. The Army Times:

The Army has selected 6.8mm as the new common round for both its Squad Automatic Weapon and M4 replacement.

A Prototype Opportunity Notice posted on the government website fbo.gov is going to give three companies the chance to submit their versions of the new individual service rifle, the Next Generation Squad Weapon, chambered in 6.8mm, the same round that developers are using for the Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle program.

Until recently, officials would only say that developers were being encouraged to look at requirements in the intermediate caliber range, somewhere between the existing 5.56mm and 7.62mm rounds common to individual, sniper and machine guns in the Armys inventory.

If true, 6.8 would be a very affordable round very quickly.

12 Responses to “New Army caliber?”

  1. MikeQ Says:

    What’s the over under on how long till they cancel the program due to not providing enough improvement over 5.56 to justify the cost and pain in the ass of switching to a new round?

  2. Bruce Says:

    The article wasn’t clear, is the 6.8mm round developed by Remington?

  3. Sid Says:

    MikeQ,

    Exactly.

  4. Miles Says:

    Bruce;
    No, it’s not the 6.8 SPC. It’s a 6.8mm bullet cartridge based on the Textron ‘cased telescoped’ design.

    I think the round and weapon will get the same treatment that the .276 Petersen cartridge got when then Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur noted the massive stocks of .30-06 ammo still in inventory

  5. JFM Says:

    They could offset the cost of the new round by selling off their stocks of 5.56 ammo and current M4 barrels. What does the Army pay per round? I’m sure it’s less than $.20/round.

  6. SPQR Says:

    O don’t see this program completing either.

  7. Ron W Says:

    Think I’ll stick to my 7.62.

  8. Drake Says:

    Another round that’ll never happen. If they don’t spend their budget, they lose it.

    They could always test some rounds that already exist like .224V, Remington .260, the Creedmoor rounds, etc… But that wouldn’t burn through enough cash.

  9. Will Says:

    Anyone consider the idea that the .gov is looking to equip the .gov/mil with ammo/guns that are not compatible with current civilian weapons?

  10. Matt Whitticar Says:

    They are probably looking at the 6.8spc, but can’t just say give us that for one reason or the other.

    Look at the RFQ for the USMC. It was the HK without ever saying HK416.

  11. Dave L. Says:

    Drake – they could also use the .264 USA, which the Army Marksmanship Unit developed a couple of years ago and has been kicking around.

  12. Jim W Says:

    It’s not 6.8 SPC. 6.8 SPC is crap but at least it exists.

    This is some new thing made of polymer and unobtanium and telescopes that I’m guessing will show great promise at first and then be canceled because it’s only 20 percent better (wild guess) than 5.56 and it will cost a trillion dollars to retire all the 5.56mm stuff.

Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.

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