The US 'ploughs its own furrow' with a new Infantry Rifle.

[CINDERS]

So a possible load out for a squad would be 5.56/308/6.8 - training ammo that may not shoot to the same poi less recoil then one goes into the field where its at the pointy end with the fighting ammo with its 80000 psi ammo and harsher recoil how will they perform.
Then ol mate runs out of his hot ammo who is he gunna get some off, they going to be loaded up to the gunnels with ammo isn't it prudent to at least have compatible ammunition in your group incase of an extended fire fight.
Or just equip the whole squad with the new weaponry, bean counters!

I was having a coffee with a serving SASR member a few days ago and much was the discussion on how our troops were equipped or the lack of.
SASR are a bit more fortunate than the regs but they still had to pilfer when deployed, I cannot fathom the successive govt cutbacks that have placed our country ripe for the picking we would be an easier target than the Ukraine.
And to form a militia well Johnny Howard saw to that occurrence never happening.

[ssgross]

It's simple if you look at it the right way.
The money is in developing and testing new ammunition and arms.
Nothing sexy about adding bells and whistles to 5.56 or 7.62!

Now that's just it isn't it. Keeping the contractors in business and competitive is a large part of the equation. This switch, like many, is driven largely because some defense contractor convinced some bureaucrats (military bureaucrats included) that there was an overwhelming need, and of course their new gadget is the only solution. The actual "need" rarely drives the bus in these decisions because the idea of "needs" early on gets perverted by whoever is trying to line their pockets. Easy examples abound...$1.7million single stall public bathroom https://abc7news.com/sf-expensive-ba...ooms/12347868/, $10,000 toilet seat for a C130 https://www.military.com/defensetech...cials-say.html, never mind all my examples are from the sh!tter.

[Surpmil]

I wouldn't worry too much for the old MIC; unless holding a lot of stocks in it. They've got to replace all that kit accidentally left in Viet'stan, and besides we have a lovely little war going on in Europe that is already producing some record profits.

Wasn't it Orwell who wrote something about continual warfare as a feature of the state? Certainly the Carnegie Foundation determined more than a century ago that war is the most effective and expeditious way of changing a society; for the better of course!