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US Special Forces adopt Belgium Assault Rifle
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I see the old "weight" versus "stopping power" debate has resurfaced here....
"An Army study found that the M-4s 5.56mm bullets don't retain enough velocity beyond 1,000 feet (300 meters) to kill an adversary. NATO commanders say U.S. firepower cannot always respond adequately to Taliban sharpshooters firing from 2,000 to 2,500 feet (600-800 meters)..."Martin Fackler, a U.S. ballistics expert, said the SCAR-H round enjoys a clear advantage at long distances because the lighter 5.56mm bullets slow down significantly after about 400 meters (yards), sharply reducing their ability to inflict serious damage to the target.
"(In contrast) at 1,000 yards the 7.62 bullet is still traveling at over the speed of sound," Fackler said"Well, stone me! We've had cocaine, bribery and Arsenal scoring two goals at home. But just when you thought there were truly no surprises left in football, Vinnie Jones turns out to be an international player!" (Jimmy Greaves)!"
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And it's not really that unconventional at all
So much so, in fact, that the SCAR-L has effectively been canned for 'cost reasons', with remaining funds being expended on the SCAR-H. Apparently the SCAR-L didn't offer sufficiently significant improvements over the M4A1 to justify the cost involved, and so SOCOM have focused their attention on the H model. There's been no word yet as to whats going to happen to the several thousand SCAR-L that are in service already, not least with Naval SF.
FN are (wait for it) working on a 5.56mm version of the SCAR-H (using the receiver from the H to mate with 5.56 mm barrel), meaning that the same rifle can be used to fire both rounds (as opposed to just having a very high degree of interchangable parts).
And then the USMC have gone with a version of the HK417 for their LMG/SAW supplement/replacement (call it what it is, it's a BAR replacement lads), and other elements of SOCOM are using the HK416. Simple really.
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