Check out this article I scanned in from 1989: Advanced Combat Rifle.

[Obin Robinson]

Every few years there is a big hoopla that comes about when some magazine gets wind of the government wanting to replace their rifles. This has been repeated ad nauseum and the result since the 1960s has always been the same: the AR-15 and its variants are here to stay.

The most interesting part of the article is that it reads pretty much just like all the ones written after it. There's a whole lot of interest in something new and then this interest ends up disappearing after the trials are over. The failed weapon systems end up getting shelved and the AR-15 soldiers on. Check out the exotic stuff being discussed in the 1980s:



















It's stange to think that NONE of these rifles were accepted and 2 decades later we still haven't moved past where we were in 1989.

obin

[Power5]

That H&K G11 is a slick piece of engineering. Can shoot a 3 round burst with no recoil. But watching videos of it shoot the recoil seems to be more than what you see from a single shot m4. Mag is a bit cumbersome. How does a soldier carry a 2 foot magazine? 3000fps is just insane as well.

[Obin Robinson]

That H&K G11 is a slick piece of engineering. Can shoot a 3 round burst with no recoil. But watching videos of it shoot the recoil seems to be more than what you see from a single shot m4. Mag is a bit cumbersome. How does a soldier carry a 2 foot magazine? 3000fps is just insane as well.

What killed the G11 is heat buildup and chamber fouling. Cased ammunition allows the weapon to vent off heat created from the ignition of the propellant. The G11 built up all this heat in the receiver and after sustained bursts the weapon became too hot to hold. The barrel also became fouled quicker than with cased ammunition.

obin

[compy222]

its not really a huge surprise. we've got a mountain of M16 and their variants/parts laying around. not only that, moving to a new bullet requires the changeover in millions of rounds of ammo and retraining. it took a long time to work all the kinks out of the m16.

i feel like moving to a different sidearm (other than the M9) will become necessary in the coming years before we switch to a whole new shouldered rifle.

[armeiro]

Every few years there is a big hoopla that comes about when some magazine gets wind of the government wanting to replace their rifles. This has been repeated ad nauseum and the result since the 1960s has always been the same: the AR-15 and its variants are here to stay.

The most interesting part of the article is that it reads pretty much just like all the ones written after it. There's a whole lot of interest in something new and then this interest ends up disappearing after the trials are over. The failed weapon systems end up getting shelved and the AR-15 soldiers on. Check out the exotic stuff being discussed in the 1980s:



















It's stange to think that NONE of these rifles were accepted and 2 decades later we still haven't moved past where we were in 1989.

obin

Hi,is it possible to repost the images one more time as they are impossible to see?
Thank you.