The New Army High Tech Rifle (OICW0

H

Hard Ball

New member
The Armys new high tech infantry "rifle" the Objective Individual Combat Weapon's. (OICW) schedule seems to have slipped again, The army is now planning initial issue to troops in 2009.
 
I guess they'll make up a unit from the guys in the "World's Strongest Man" contests, and didn't-quite-make-it NFL linemen...Danged if I'd want to carry one!

Art
 
I know the weight, price, delicate parts, battery dependency, and overall awkwardness of the current prototypes will make anyone dismiss this weapon, but there is the undeniable fact that "something" has to be done to improve the "individual weapon" (it may not be a rifle in the future). The state of the art of these weapons have been almost stagnant for 40 years (and even more in other small arms), with only small evolutive changes and improvements in sigth systems. It's time for a major breakthrough. Would it be acomplished in ten years from now? ...nobody knows, but you can bet they will keep on trying.
 
Breakthroughs are for armoured combat, not issued combat weapons. I want things that work. Period. I think this would be a good project if they were using it simply to test the feasability of the technology, or proof of concept etc. But the idiots plan on issueing this abomination! I think the idea of airbursted munitions is a good thing, for support weapons mounted on vehicles. Also by going with 20mm you are giving up any anti-vehicle effectiveness you ever had with the 40mm HEDP. Shaped charge effectiveness is almost directly related to warhead diameter. The 40mm is marginal, the 20mm is useless. And you can't make it a kinetic energy weapon because recoil would knock the crap out of you. So you are gaining nothing and eliminating a useful capability. Maddog has already addressed the issue of trajectory and super elevation for the OICW. What we need in the near term is optical sights. Don't argue. Don't hem and haw. Don't whine how it's "expensive" Just buy them and issue them! Long term maybe some sort of rail or coil gun, using electronic propulsion, but that's 20 years away minimum. In all honesty, good old powder burning projectile weapons are effective enough. Sighting is where we have been lagging. Semper Fi...Ken
 
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