Will The Army Pick A Bullpup For Its New Rifle?
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 11 months ago
As Army leaders look to the service’s next standard issue rifle or carbine, a lot of options are on the table.
One such option has been around awhile but still strikes many U.S. troops as a futuristic form of the rifle they think they know.
This past fall, officials with the Army Maneuver Center of Excellence’s lethality branch laid out several concepts being considered for the Army’s Next Generation Squad weapon and likely new designs for the ultimate replacement for the M4.
Some of those include major advancements to the fire controls and a likely change in caliber. But one was a possible bullpup design.
The bullpup has been around for more than half a century, and it was adopted by some foreign militaries. It reverses the design of the standard rifle or carbine by putting the action and magazine behind the trigger, automatically shortening the length of the rifle considerably.
Hey, that’s a swell idea. Take the location where the explosion occurs, and the place where the initial sound wave goes greater than Mach 1 (not inside the barrel), and put it closer to the shooter’s ears.
Or otherwise, make wearing hearing protection with electronic communication with all of your teammates mandatory for all engagements, even unplanned ones. Don’t patrol listening to the people or the crunch of the sticks in the bush, or even enemy fighters.
I read some forums today on noise from shooting, and the term “perceived noise” came up by some contributors. There is no such thing as “perceived noise.” That’s a myth. Noise functions as dictated by Gauss’s law, where it increases or decreases as a function of the square of the distance.
I predict that use of the bullpup design will also make the shooters less accurate at distance than with any other design.
On January 25, 2018 at 2:52 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
The British SA80 bull-pup rifle was a virtual case study in how not to design and field a standard issue military rifle; a fiasco from start to finish. So poor was the reputation of the weapon, in particular for being unreliable and fragile, that the British had to turn to Austrian firearms manufacturer Heckler and Koch, then a subsidiary of BAE Defense Systems, to remanufacture and overhaul the troublesome rifles. The revised design worked better than the original, but that wouldn’t have been hard, considering how lousy the first versions had been.
So, of course the geniuses in the U.S. Army want just have to have their very own bull-pup design as well! Trying to beat the British at their own game, are they?
On January 25, 2018 at 7:07 am, Heywood said:
I have to agree with you Herschel…they seem to be seeking a technilogical solution to a training problem. Give me a gun and ammo, let me practice. There…solved it.
On January 25, 2018 at 8:04 am, SGT.BAG said:
It is not about efficiency…it is all about the coolness factor of a bullpup in the trophy shots.
On January 25, 2018 at 7:10 pm, MN Steel said:
Well…
I guess pop-no kicks will take on a whole new significance with the chamber next to your carotid…
Wonder if they’ll come with a heavy barrel, like the M-16A2s, so the barrel won’t bend when used as a pry bar, like the bean counters figured.
On January 26, 2018 at 11:54 am, CB said:
The Israelis seem to like their bullpup. I have talked to several IDF soldiers and they prefer it to the M4. Their bullpup is now standard issue for front line infantry units.
On January 27, 2018 at 2:11 pm, Ned said:
Oh good! Another one! Must be a new day….
On January 27, 2018 at 3:54 pm, Ned said:
I guess it was all that “perceived noise” from magnum handguns and power tools that affected my hearing. benefit is – now I don’t have to hear as much of that perceived noise.
I wonder if this alleged caliber change is going to effect “perceived recoil?”
Certainly, NATO participants won’t have a problem with the caliber change.
On January 27, 2018 at 5:50 pm, Gryphon said:
I have a (Mossberg) Bullpup 12-Gauge. Shot it Once from the Shoulder, felt like I had been Punched in the Eye. Hip-shooting it for Zombies / Home Invaders and it’s Fine. If there’s Any Way to Reduce the Marksmanship of Anyone, hand them a Bullpup and ask them to actually Aim at something more than 100 Meters out.