The U.S. Army Still Wants A Gun That Does Everything
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 4 months ago
“The NGSAR will address operational needs identified in various capability-based assessments and numerous after action reports,” according to the PON solicitation document.
“It will combine the firepower and range of a machine gun with the precision and ergonomics of a rifle, yielding capability improvements in accuracy, range, and lethality,” the document continues. “The weapon will be lightweight and fire lightweight ammunition, improving soldier mobility, survivability, and firing accuracy.”
It will also be able to go to the latrine for you, take you to the dance, find your car keys, and most important, can sprinkle magic pixie dust from unicorn farts as they fly over the moon.
Then there’s this.
“They have some pretty aggressive goals with respect to lethality and weight and size and some other performance characteristics,” he said. “All of those things individually may be relatively easy but, when you start stacking them all together, that is really where it becomes complex and you need a new design.”
“There is not an easy button here …”
Well, you’d better try, because it’s what necessary for the brass to tell the demons, gargoyles and pit vipers in the Senate that women can actually do what God didn’t design their bodies to do, i.e., go to war and engage in combat.
My former Marine strongly believes that we’re going to have to lose another war in order to be recalibrated. This next one will be bloody, and girls will come home in caskets while their parents were told this would be easy and clinical because of all the unicorn pixie dust rainbow farts.
On July 12, 2018 at 4:48 am, Tate said:
I think that the girls who come home in caskets will be the lucky ones. I’ll bet enemy soldiers will want to capture the women alive to service their men. Watch the movies Day of the Siege and The Flowers of War. Americans live in a bubble and are woefullycignorant of the barbarity that exists outside of the Christian Wesr that is dying.
On July 12, 2018 at 6:07 am, MN Steel said:
So, .mil wants an F-35 for ground-pounders?
Another camel (horse-made-by-committee) like the Bradley APC?
Is this going to be supported by the 3rd-arm Donkey Dick for all the wimmen and limp-wristers that can’t toss a grenade out of the kill-zone? Or maybe have an integrated M-203 and no-spin 40mm fuses?
On July 12, 2018 at 7:07 am, Talktome said:
If they do succeed in getting such a weapon, a couple of pounds doesn’t make a difference. It would have to be combined with a whole host of changes. Just not going to happen.
On July 12, 2018 at 7:17 am, Mark Matis said:
DARPA has come up with some amazing toys through their projects. RFPs such as this are how change comes. Now if they go with full procurement on some half assed piece of shiite, that’s another matter. But that would most likely be driven by some swill in Congress who want “jobs” for their district.
On July 12, 2018 at 7:53 am, DAN III said:
ALCON,
Got to keep those foreign companies, H & K, Sig Sauer, Beretta, Glock, Hyundai, Kia, in business. Globalism and Diversity doncha know ?
Remington, Colt, Mossberg, Smith & Wesson….can go bankrupt. Some have and all will. Besides, Patriotism, Nationalism and national sovereignty….that’s so “racist” and “white”.
BTW….I see SecDef “Tough Guy” Mattis is still enthralled with the communist-moslem, Usurper-in-Chief soetoro-obama’s community organizer policies. Good Ol’ Boy Mattis still has not terminated enlisting trannies into the Armed Forces and females into the military and particularly combat arms MOS’ !
On July 12, 2018 at 9:05 am, Frank Clarke said:
“My former Marine strongly believes…”
You know of a ‘former’ Marine?
On July 12, 2018 at 9:15 am, Shinmen Takezo said:
Such a weapon that the US Army desires already exists–it’s called…
The AK47
On July 12, 2018 at 9:24 am, John said:
The “DialaGun”. It slices, it dices, it’s self-cleaning
and makes its own ammo.
On July 12, 2018 at 9:40 am, revjen45 said:
Talk to the nice folks at Daewoo. They built a great rifle with the best features of AR, AK, and FAL all in one package. No, it won’t take the trash out or make dinner.
On July 12, 2018 at 9:52 am, Herschel Smith said:
@MN Steel,
Ha! The Donkey Dick!
http://www.captainsjournal.com/2018/06/11/army-research-lab-shows-off-third-arm/
Thanks for the reminder.
On July 12, 2018 at 10:02 am, Fred said:
Who or what is going to make the sam’miches if all the wimmin are running around the middle east with donkey dicks? Can this gun do it? We have misbegotten civilizational priorities.
On July 12, 2018 at 10:21 am, Jess said:
While many military weapon developers would like physics to be suspended for their new toy, physics always overrules. That, and some soldiers will find the most sophisticated of rifles is an unwieldy club.
On July 12, 2018 at 10:28 am, Herschel Smith said:
@Jess,
Big army is saying, “Give us a gun that has a long barrel for long range shooting so it doesn’t lose velocity, but a short barrel for CQB, with high accuracy for long range shooting, but rapid followup for CQB, heavy weight to handle the recoil of larger caliber rounds, but light because women can’t tote it around, no recoil in spite of its light (er, heavy) weight, etc., etc.”
It’s like telling school children to write a hundred word paper, the first six hundred of which have to be in Iambic Pentameter, but the first hundred of those must really be in Haiku while also in Iambic Pentameter.
On July 12, 2018 at 11:31 am, Ray said:
I have two young men who grew up across the street from me. One was USMC one is Army. The USMC guy was a combat engineer. Army humped a 240. They have 9 combat tours between them. They tell me the .Mil wants to get rid of all belt fed infantry weapons because “too heavy for girls”. Both DID NOT re up, even though both had more than one hitch and were NCO’s with perfect records. As “Tom” told me. “I don’t want to be a squad leader the day GI Jane shows up with a weapon that shoots magic beans and rainbows”
On July 12, 2018 at 1:24 pm, Gryphon said:
Last I read, Pilots of the F-35 (the few that are Flying between 100+ Manhours of Maintenance per Flying Hour) Can’t Fire the Gatling Gun because the Software to Control it hasn’t been Written yet (it’s one of the planned ‘Block Upgrades’).
I Guess the Army wants to join the Fun… BTW, Why doesn’t this list of Features include some sort of ‘Smart Gun” feature, so it cannot be Fired by anyone but the Soldier it is Issued to?
On July 12, 2018 at 1:29 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Gryphon,
“Why doesn’t this list of Features include some sort of ‘Smart Gun” feature, so it cannot be Fired by anyone but the Soldier it is Issued to?”
Great idea!!
But it should only be a temporary bridge. Eventually they need to give the ladies a magic Star Trek transporter that can transport them out and back again.
Calling DARPA? Are you there?
On July 12, 2018 at 1:33 pm, VoorTrekker USA said:
Which intermediate cartridge will be adopted for this magic rifle?
6.5 SPC, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.8 SPC? A scaled down version of the .280 Pedersen?
On July 12, 2018 at 4:58 pm, Badger said:
But wait, wait! How can an RFP for ANYthing be bad if it supports the MICO that Congress genuflects to? They’re going to be all over this like breeze after a cold front.
On July 12, 2018 at 8:21 pm, A.B. Prosper said:
So they want a modular Stoner rifle only being able to run all the modules at one time?
alrighty than
On July 12, 2018 at 9:04 pm, Stealth Spaniel said:
Okay, stop me if you’ve heard this before………women do not belong in the military. Yes, as a woman, I will say it. Women do NOT belong in the military. I don’t give a Wood’s pecker who Bad Ass Beulah has kicked seven ways from Sunday in the latest go round with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. She should not be in a uniform, acting like a possesed sea captain because I have never seen a woman run Concertina Wire, dig a ditch, or actually complete special training without skewing the odds. If the zombies are coming to invade, I want a Nordic God with huge arms, chest hair, and big thighs. Casting his sword and carrying guns and ammo. Please do not send Barbie Bimbo and her cohorts. This is a GD war and I want it honored as such.
On July 12, 2018 at 10:32 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Prosper,
Ah. Good point.
@Stealth,
The problem actually runs deeper than that. Hard work is always a compound rather than an isolation exercise. Secondary muscles get worked, and turns and twists happen. For instance, if your Lats get tired doing something, the Rhomboids might assist. They tighten and then a spinal subluxation occurs.
Or a pushing exercise requires not only the pectoralis major, but the minor as well. As a powerlifting team member in college, I can tell you it hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts when you strain that muscle. Only rest will heal it.
And women have wider hips than men, while men have wider shoulders than women. That causes the femur to connect into the pelvis at a different angle than in men, and it’s why most of the women who dropped out of Marine Corps Infantry Officer school at Quantico did so because of a fractured pelvis. You won’t hear that from the worthless interwebz. I know it because a Marine Corps officer told me.
Back to compound movements. There is no PT you can give someone to test compound movements when you haven’t eaten in two or three days, haven’t slept in three days, and have lifted two tons of weight in total moving arty shells (by lifting and turning) or sandbags.
My son told me that setting of FOB Reaper in Fallujah required him and other Marines to move sandbags over their head while under fire. Many hundreds of them. So much for shoulder press or bench press. Do it under fire for hours on end, without sleep and without eating.
On July 13, 2018 at 4:31 am, Trips Ewing said:
Shades of McNamara’s Whiz Kids’ TFX (F-111) which was supposed to be a do-it-all aircraft for Air Force and Navy. All the carrier flight decks would need cost prohibitive reinforcing.
I see Pentagon logisticians haven’t learned a thing in 60+ years.
On July 13, 2018 at 4:37 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Herschel
“There is no PT you can give someone to test compound movements when you haven’t eaten in two or three days, haven’t slept in three days, and have lifted two tons of weight in total moving arty shells (by lifting and turning) or sandbags.”
“My son told me that setting of FOB Reaper in Fallujah required him and other Marines to move sandbags over their head while under fire. Many hundreds of them. So much for shoulder press or bench press. Do it under fire for hours on end, without sleep and without eating.”
You’ve hit upon another problem – the fact that the physical readiness tests used by the U.S. military do not accurately model or simulate what our men actually experience physically when in combat.
Our respective military forces administer physical fitness tests, including some specifically developed so that Suzie the Soldier can do well on them – and them claims that these tests correlate well with success in the field and in garrison.
The typical fitness metrics used by the military – timed runs, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, etc. are useful indicators of overall physical fitness, but they are emphatically not the same as combat. Cracking wise, when’s the last time you saw a soldier or Marine doing pushups or sit-ups in the middle of an ongoing battle?
Suzie the Soldier can do really well on the timed run in garrison, wearing her athletic outfit and running shoes or trainers. But how does she do when she’s fully-kitted up with her regulation uniform, service weapon, ammo, food, water, first aid kit, comms gear, body armor, load-bearing equipment and so forth? How fast can she move then? As quickly as her male counterparts?
How quickly can Suzie the Soldier unload that six-by-six or helicopter full of mortar rounds desperately needed at the nearest outpost?
Can Suzie the Airwoman lift her mechanic’s toolbox and carry it to the flight line where repairs and service are being done?
Can Suzie the Sailor do the vital and physically-demanding work of damage-control aboard a U.S. Navy ship at war?
How well can Suzie the Soldier change out a thrown track on an Abrams MBT? Can she rack (work) the action on a GPMG or a Browning 50-caliber HBMG, not only to make the weapon operational, but to ensure that it is clear and safe to service?
Can Suzie the Soldier drag a wounded 200-lb. male comrade to safety?
Can Suzie the Soldier sprint across a street ladened with her combat loadout and gear, while under enemy fire, and then lever herself over a five-foot wall?
If any female service member needs help with any of these tasks, she is a drag upon the readiness and operational effectiveness of her unit. In other words, she’s making our job harder – and that of our adversary easier.
The noted Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz termed as “friction” anything which makes the soldier’s job harder, i.e., bad weather, a lack of information, or troops weakened by hunger and thirst, for example.
Professional military men – especially officers and NCOs – should strive to minimize sources of friction within the ranks in the name of optimizing the performance of their personnel when the chips are down.
No professional military man worthy of the name, would willingly add or create friction within his unit – so why are our military leaders doing exactly that when it comes to the inclusion of women in the ranks?
On July 13, 2018 at 7:17 pm, brunop said:
^
Because our “military leaders” don’t want to win.
On July 13, 2018 at 10:51 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ brunop
“Because our “military leaders” don’t want to win.”
Quick-and-decisive victories are not as profitable for the military-industrial-Congressional complex as a state of permanent low-intensity warfare. (*)
(*) – “Low-intensity” except for the men who do the fighting and the dying, that is… if you are unfortunate-enough to get hit in a “low-intensity conflict,” there’s nothing minor or lesser about it.