First I’ve heard of this particular weapon, or the 6.5x43mm steel cased round, or the “Irregular Warfare Technology Support Directorate” (almost sounds like DARPA’s Project Agile in the early days of the Vietnam conflict, when the AR-15 was tested in-country). Seems suspiciously similar to the Army’s new SIG M7:
“The IWS chambers the Lightweight Intermediate Caliber Cartridge (LICC), developed from .264 USA. The 6.5x43mm round uses a steel case, which FN America says reduces weight by 20% compared to equivalent brass. No data on velocities has been released yet. The round has a two-piece, lightweight steel design with a stainless steel head and case body. a variety of loads have been developed with a number of different projectiles, including a 130gr Reduced Ricochet Limited Penetration round, a 109gr copper open tip match (OTM), a 120gr copper OTM and a soft nose 125gr cartridge.”
If they’re looking for a general purpose cartridge that packs noticeably more punch than the 5.56, and is smaller and lighter than the 7.62, this makes a ton more sense than the 6.8x51.
I have to assume FN quality will be better than SIG. It is ironic how close 6.5 x 43mm is to 7.92×33mm that the Germans developed back in 44.
Beyond the caliber, moving to a LPVO optic vs. Trijicons and Aimpoints for the individual soldier probably is a step in the right direction. If suppressors became standard issue for US soldiers, I’m sure they will appreciate that option as well. It’s hard for many of us to think of the M4 as a “dated” weapon system but it has been with us since 1994. We just didn’t get one until 10 years later.
If we didn’t live in a post Clinton clown world, most of those M4s should be on the surplus market.
I remember seeing the announcement for this when SHOT kicked off this year. IMO it seems like a much better design and concept than the NGSW. I always kinda figured the path forward would be a new standard cartridge size slightly larger than 5.56 but smaller than 7.62 NATO. There’s a lot about this that makes sense- and I can’t help but wonder if part of that is the participation of “international sponsors” who also want results and don’t want to play US DoD contractor games.
Though I would be wary of the lightweight steel case if for no other reason than where do we get the steel from? Are we going to have to rely on say…China to deliver the quantities of required steel?
I wish they would have gone for 30rd mags. I know they’re trying to keep the mags roughly the same length as the 5.56 mags, but I think I’d prefer 5 extra rounds.
Considering the popularity of current 6.5 Creed and the old trick of re-barreling your LMT- MWS in .260 Rem to get better performance than the stock .308, I am shocked, but not really, that the military hasn’t just picked one of those three and been like “hey you know what, that’s pretty great, good enough in fact, let’s just use that with some different bullets…”
But nooooooo they gotta have a new wunderkartridge every month. Meanwhile… 5.56 and .308 are still chugging along stacking bodies…
The only thing dumber than this current cartridge race to nowhere, is going to be watching them try to replace Multicam in another 10-20 years. Maybe they will go back to M81. :laugh:
Makes you wonder if…by some sheer accident of the universe… humanity has inadvertently stumbled onto the 5 irreplaceable infantry/personal-level general purpose rifle cartridges.
5.56, .308., 7.62x39, 7.62x54R, and 5.45.
Everything better is heavier, or more expensive, or more convoluted.
Everything NOT heavier/expensive/complicated performs less well for the needed job.
Kinda like .50BMG. Exactly what would you replace that with? Some of the new .338 variations are promising, but still…
Would have required a complete overhaul of everyone’s mag carrier / mag pouch system. Think of it this way, they are almost close to .308 but with an extra 5 rounds.
The 6.8 is almost certainly getting adopted. Institutional inertia is set to “overmatch”.
Remember how about 5 minutes after the M14 was adopted, the AR15 showed up, well suited for the warfighter’s needs vs what Ordinance thought they needed (M14)? Or how UCP got selected over Multicam for like 10 years, even though Multicam existed that whole time? Or how the M16a2 came to exist in a time where SBRs already were in the DoD?
“Later this year FN America will be delivering 55 of the LICC IWS. Three configurations, along with a number of the EVOLYS-based LICC Assault Machine Gun, along with ammunition will be delivered. Canadian Special Operations Forces are a co-sponsor of program and they will also be receiving a batch of the weapons and ammunition for testing and evaluation.”
Not sure what the point is with the M7 pretty much a sure bet. If it turns out to be a viable/effective option I guess there’s a chance that SOF (or some other entity) could buy a few, but it would have to be financially worthwhile quantity for FN to bother with. Maybe a similar program to SCAR?