Bartholomew Roberts
Moderator
http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2011smallarms/WednesdayInter12397Evenden.pdf
The above link is a PDF to a presentation given by Thales on upgrading the Australian F88 to the EF88 (AUG variant). We often get wrapped up in the minute details of modifications or proposed modifications/replacements to the U.S. service rifle, so I thought it was interesting to see another country's perspective on a different rifle.
However, even the Australians are impacted by the M16 as one of the first slides shows. One of the major improvements to the EF88 was to increase the ideal port pressure so that the rifle would be more compatible with M855. Despite both rifles being 5.56, it appears that Australian F1 ball doesn't work well in M16s and M855 doesn't work well in the F88 due to different pressure curves.
Another interesting thing, especially in light of all the debate on different service rifles, is how modest the initial requirements for the F88 were. According to Thales, the original mean rounds between stoppage (MRBS) for the F88 was 1:500 and the mean rounds netween failure (MRBF) was 1:6000. Thales claims an increase in MRBS of 1:2500 and a MRBF of 1:10000 in one slide. Though later in another slide Thales states that 4 randomly selected weapons were fired 6,000 rounds and suffered only 2 stoppages total. Wear of components was measured and the test is being extended to 12,000 rounds.
I thought this link would be interesting to TFL readers on the following levels:
1. It helps AUG fans get a better understanding of the rifle and see some of the current modernization efforts being done with it.
2. Always interesting to see hard performance data on other service rifles in use to give us a yardstick to measure against.
The above link is a PDF to a presentation given by Thales on upgrading the Australian F88 to the EF88 (AUG variant). We often get wrapped up in the minute details of modifications or proposed modifications/replacements to the U.S. service rifle, so I thought it was interesting to see another country's perspective on a different rifle.
However, even the Australians are impacted by the M16 as one of the first slides shows. One of the major improvements to the EF88 was to increase the ideal port pressure so that the rifle would be more compatible with M855. Despite both rifles being 5.56, it appears that Australian F1 ball doesn't work well in M16s and M855 doesn't work well in the F88 due to different pressure curves.
Another interesting thing, especially in light of all the debate on different service rifles, is how modest the initial requirements for the F88 were. According to Thales, the original mean rounds between stoppage (MRBS) for the F88 was 1:500 and the mean rounds netween failure (MRBF) was 1:6000. Thales claims an increase in MRBS of 1:2500 and a MRBF of 1:10000 in one slide. Though later in another slide Thales states that 4 randomly selected weapons were fired 6,000 rounds and suffered only 2 stoppages total. Wear of components was measured and the test is being extended to 12,000 rounds.
I thought this link would be interesting to TFL readers on the following levels:
1. It helps AUG fans get a better understanding of the rifle and see some of the current modernization efforts being done with it.
2. Always interesting to see hard performance data on other service rifles in use to give us a yardstick to measure against.