Oh geez, here we go again:
Special Operations Command wants a 10-pound 5.56mm machine gun
Just recently I wrote a piece here about how it's really time for major reform in the U.S. Military, including a major scaling back of its size. This is more evidence of that.
Military funding is so thick that we've reached the point where about every two weeks some branch or command of the military requests a new small arm. It's frankly absurd.
The Army just recently adopted the M7 rifle and now is already looking at a M8 carbine based on the rifle. At the same time, it adopted a new machine gun. The M250. Both are in a new cartridge. The M7 was supposed to replace every variant of the AR15 (the M4 Carbine and the M16). The M250 was supposed to replace the M249 and the M240, thereby also getting everyone on to a new 6.5 cartridge.
Special Operations was supposed to get the new SIG M338, which shoots a variant of the .338 Win Mag. They are using the Mk 46, their own lightweight version of the M249.
Now they want a lightweight 5.56 machine gun.
The Marine Corps, for its part, has been so/so with the M7, and is using the 5.56 M27, a piston variant of the AR. The M27 takes the place of both the M4/M16 and the M249 in the Marines. It looked at the M7 and has rejected it.
The USAF uses the M4. There are airmen who depend on a longarm, but they're relatively few in number so it really doesn't matter what the USAF uses.
Anyhow, this is nonsense.
The AR platform rifles have always been problematic. At this point the ARs share the same distinction occupied by the late 19th Century "trapdoor" Springfields in being a weapon that was never very good, got people killed early on, but which has lingered on forever. Replacing it was a good idea.
The Army uses more longarms than anyone else and anything suitable for a soldier is suitable for a Marine. The Marine Corps should be made to get with the program.
Nobody needs a carbine. That's just stupid.
Nobody needs a 5.56 caliber weapon anymore. That's just stupid.
It's also a stupid waste of money.
For that matter, there being a M17 and M18 pistol is as well.
US military pistols tend to give me heartburn to start with, as the post Vietnam War history of them has been dumb. The M1911 never needed to be replaced, new ones just needed to be ordered. Congress forced the 9mm and that's how we ended up with the M9.
Having said that, the oddly unloved M9 is a good 9mm pistol. It really doesn't need to be replaced at all. Just as the M16 was never able to replace the M14 fully, the M9 was never able to fully replace the M1911, which started a late in the day comeback even seeing the Marines re adopt it for special use as the M45.
Because everyone now loves striker fired pistols, we decided we needed one and adopted the SIG in the form of the M18 and M17. That was bound to make Glock heads upset even though the Glock isn't that great of pistol, frankly. The myth of the misfires started but apparently that is now over.
I guess I can tolerate there being a M18 compact variant of the full size M17, but frankly that's a little stupid for the most part. I can see some use for it, but only some. Still, the USAF handguns are all M18s. The Navy and Marine Corps also use the M18, rather than the M17.
Anyhow, during the Cold War, Congress at one time had enough and required the services to use uniform equipment. After the Vietnam War that started to erode away.
It needs to come back.
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