The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Vaunted M4 & the 5.56mm need new Weapon & larger rounds 20% of Troops say.

Chindo18Z · March 7, 2011, 09:43 PM

I can think of lots of places that vehicles don't accompany troops. Places and missions in Iraq, in Pakistan, the P.I., and in Afghanistan. Actually, quite a few other places for that matter.

I also notice that most of my guys equipped with SCAR-H are pretty limited on the ammo load they can hump.

As HorseSoldier noted, going to 7.62 x 51 more than doubles the weight you have to carry. I note a lot of casual assumptions concerning Soldier load in this and other threads.

Every ounce counts on when fighting on top of an 10,000 foot high ridgeline...or walking miles up a rock face...or humping through the jungle...or moving to contact across desert hardpan, city blocks, or palm groves at temperatures exceeding 130+ Fahrenheit.

Two fallacies that I see continuously repeated in these discussions are that:

1. Issuing 7.62 weapons to our guys will somehow result in a magical improvement in distance marksmanship and a quantum leap in hits & effect against the enemy ("One shot...One kill").

2. We are somehow being out gunned by generally expert enemy riflemen operating from well outside of our range fan.

Both ideas are quite simply a bunch of B.S.

March 7, 2011, 09:43 PM	#110
Chindo18Z Senior Member Join Date: July 23, 1999 Posts: 498	I can think of lots of places that vehicles don't accompany troops. Places and missions in Iraq, in Pakistan, the P.I., and in Afghanistan. Actually, quite a few other places for that matter. I also notice that most of my guys equipped with SCAR-H are pretty limited on the ammo load they can hump. As HorseSoldier noted, going to 7.62 x 51 more than doubles the weight you have to carry. I note a lot of casual assumptions concerning Soldier load in this and other threads. Every ounce counts on when fighting on top of an 10,000 foot high ridgeline...or walking miles up a rock face...or humping through the jungle...or moving to contact across desert hardpan, city blocks, or palm groves at temperatures exceeding 130+ Fahrenheit. Two fallacies that I see continuously repeated in these discussions are that: 1. Issuing 7.62 weapons to our guys will somehow result in a magical improvement in distance marksmanship and a quantum leap in hits & effect against the enemy ("One shot...One kill"). 2. We are somehow being out gunned by generally expert enemy riflemen operating from well outside of our range fan. Both ideas are quite simply a bunch of B.S. __________________ Figure The Odds...