Marines choose new weapon

[elmerfudd]

So instead of shipping your troops more ammo, you fill the planes and trucks with barrels and bolts, and tell them to go find their own damned ammo?

Doesn't sound like a winning plan, in most cases...

+1. It might work for guerrillas and a few SF types, but there's no way you could effectively run a modern army like that. Imagine soldiers having to keep multiple barrels, bolts and magazines and the supply problems it would create. Troops with 7.62 barrels would get 5.56 ammo delivered to them and vice versa and it would be guaranteed that a few dumb @$$es would do their conversion wrong and leave the wrong bolt in the rifle or grab the wrong magazines.