SeNNebogen
Member
In the beginning...there was a big long rifle with a giant bullet. But it was a manual operated, and it was slow to fire. Then came the machine gun but it was not very mobile and required more then one person to operate it. Then they came up with the light machine gun (which was good)and the submachine gun but the SMG had very limited range and was not suited for all practical ranges. Next was the semi auto rifle with a full power cartridge, now this WAS a good idea because they wanted to give every rifleman the fire power of a light machine gun but with a full power cartridge it could not be practically controled when fired fully automatic. Then came the Sturmgewehr with an intermidiate or short cartridge, which is where we are today.
You see, the Germans had found that it was actually better to have one rifle(they loved the M1carbine though it was lacking), that could be controled during rapid fire like an SMG yet still have the effective RANGE and POWER to engage the enemy well within PRACTICAL combat distances. There was also another feature and that was WEIGHT, because now your basic infantry man could carry more ammo.
Now I think range, power and weight speak for themselves. But let me elaborate on the word "practical" in the contex of "practical combat distances". It was quickly realized that most battles were not fought at extreme distances but in realitve close range. Most battles were not fought at hundreds upon hundreds of meters in open fields or from trenches at extreme distances like in WWI. War had evolved more for the most part from static to manoeuvre. And alot of the battles for strateigic points were fought in villages ,towns and cities wich are very bloody and very close.
After the last great war the lessons the Germans learned through blood were for the most part forgotten. Except maybe for the Russians who had it beaten into them so well. With the advent of nuclear weapons, small arms seemed to take a back seat(politics?). NATO wanted a standardized round the 7.62x51 a slighty smaller yet high pressure round as compared to the new enemy, the 7.62x54 Russian. The Russians in the mean time were tooling up for the SKS with the new 7.62x39 round much simular to the the German 7.92x33 Kurz of WW2.
Red flags go up! Its now the Korean war and the silly North Koreans and Chinease (volunteers
) are swarming by the millions in mass waves towards the line. The M1 Garand is somewhat lacking in fire power and the carbine is bounceing off their heavy quilted coats. So its eventually decieded to put a detachable magazine on the M1 Garand and call it an M14. But still the Kurz concept doesn't catch on.Now its Vietnam, and it seems like were not gonna use nukes(politics?). and what is this? An AK-47! We have some catching up to do
So we finally settle on a new light infantry rifle with the Kurz concept, the M16. It works well after we work out the bugs we ran into with the powder change. Its accurate so we can keep the old doctrine of the rifleman/marksman not like those silly commies running around spraying everything! And the guy who came up with the design is a friend of a friend(politics?) we all saw what it can do to watermelons! The only thing is it has to be cleaned but we will train our troops on proper maintenace.So now the Russians see this and their jelous!(politics) They have a very good rifle(for their doctrine anyway) but they feel they now need to catch up, as with everything during the Cold War they develop something new to combat the evil capitalists. They come up with the AK-74. If you read all this crap so far and think your eyes are going dislexic, don't worry your OK. It goes from 47 to74, weird huh?
So now its the first Afgan war. The Soviets vs. the Hajis. The AK-74 vs. the AK-47 plus some other stuff like Enfields and Stinger missels. The AK-74 does well. It even gets the nick name the "poison bullet". This is because of its kooky ballistics. It has an air pocket in the nose to throw it off balance and make it yaw when it hits something(as compared to the 5.56 wich fragments). And it also has a hell of alot better accuracy the the older AK-47 7.62 round. Which allows the Russians to engage the enemy weapons supply caravans at greater distances when they catch them in the mountains. But still its lacking something......
Now comes Chechneya. And that something that the AK-74 is lacking becomes more apparent. The Russians are involved in brutal urban warfare with Muslim seperatists. And the problem is..... the AK-74 sux if you gotta shoot through a wall or a door or even burnt out vehicle. In fact, any kind of medium cover. A small light bullet will lose alot of energy, likely too much to be effective and it may even just bounce off. And the same holds true for the 5.56 AR-15.
So now we have these new pet projects like the Grendal, 6.8 this 6.5 that and even the Chinease have their own little thing they are working on. Take into account modern body armour with ceramic plates and everything seems to be lacking, though some more so then others. I say this because if think future conflicts will most likely revolve around an urban area.
So it seems that small arms development has once again taken a back seat. I think much more money has been spent on high technology weapons development. You can compensate to an extent for what your small arms are lacking if you can drop a special bomb right where you want it or even just call in an attack helicopter. And after you develop these special weapons you can sell them to your allies(politics), even the allies who don't have any need for your small arms.
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Things like targeting systems, armor, and other strategic technologies are of greater value at this time. (At any rate, it doesn't matter much when our enemy is primarily using IEDs and suicide bombers. A bigger bullet won't stop them sooner.)
