There's not a ton written about this that I can find, but cracks are appearing in the US military's plan to replace the M4 with a heavier battle rifle designed to defeat body armor. Sig Sauer, which also holds contracts for the current generation pistol and LMG, won a contract last year to also provide the US military with a new rifle. This rifle is to be called the XM7. The civilian equivalent is the Sig Spear. Calling this thing an assault rifle is a bit of a stretch, as it is very heavy and uses heavy ammunition. It turns out that the rifle is failing to penetrate modern body armor without the use of tungsten bullets. Also its reliability is questionable.

  • Lester_Peterson [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    It is 1990 and the Pentagon just spent $300 million in a failed effort to replace the M16 platform

    It is 2005 and the Pentagon just spent $770 million in a failed effort to replace the M16 platform

    It is 2023 and the Army plans to spend $7.4 billion in an effort to replace the M16 platform