New assault rifle for some units of the british army
The new number designation: L403A1.
No mention of issue to The Parachute Regiment though, oh well the uneducated Grant Shapps MP New Defence Secretary will put that right........NO CHANCE hell will freeze over beofre that happens with his background!!!
'Tonight my men and I have been through hell and back again, but the look on your faces when we let you out of the hall - we'd do it all again tomorrow.' Major Chris Keeble's words to Goose Green villagers on 29th May 1982 - 2 PARA
Interesting. America's recent NGSW (Next Generation Squad Weapon) competition is moving in a slightly different direction, especially cartridge-wise with a 6.8mm bullet and a stainless steel/bras hybrid case rated for 80,000psi. The new rifle will fire with the telescoping stock folded and comes complete with Vortex Optics XM157 'Smart Optic". The U.S. Army expects to procure 107,000 magazine fed XM5 rifles and 13,000 XM250 belt fed squad automatics with first shipments this year.
Interesting how the European move to a short 7mm cartridge after WWII fell afoul of the shorter 30-06 round. Which was quickly superceded by the 5,56. Which has now moved back to the short 7mm.
Paging through Cartridges of the World reveals evidence of the 'new' cartridge existing many decades ago! Albeit not in that chamber pressure.
Is the U.S up gunning to an 6.8mmx 51mm I wonder how the training will go with the two types of ammo the one for conflict the other for training, would love the first one for my collection it being a 2 piece case of brass and stainless steel.
As the 80,000CUP operating pressure in a brass case would see allot of ruptures I feel, but boy it must have one hell of a gas system to contain all that and without slamming the bolt out the back of the receiver.
The 7x49 Liviano is still one of my favorites, developed by FN using the US 7,62x49mm case necked down to 7mm. This is still an excellent cartridge if used today and with newer loadings. Sold to Venezuela with the new FN FAL rifle chambering this cartridge in 1954.
Back in 1980, Remington introduced the 7mm-08 cartridge with a 140gr bullet @ 2860 fps which was a slight improvement over the original 7x49 cartridge.
Also have a photos of the Japanese specialized 7,62x51 NATO cartridge designed for the Howa Type 64 (1964) rifle designed and manufactured in Japan. Never exported either. This rifle was designed to use the lower power 7,62 cartridge but could use the full power 7,62mm cartridge if required. The Japanese headstamp shows a half NATO symbol indicating lower power. These cartridges are not common outside of Japan.
In this case jim they have the training round in a one piece brass case loaded down to a useable pressure, that conflict round @80K CUP in my mind would make it a hot rod and a barrel burner.
So unless they are using chrome lined barrels one feels throat and muzzle wear will be an issue.
What will happen to the Colt Canada L119 rifles currently in British service?
Given Colt Canada were given 2.8m to upgrade them to midlife update, L119A2 spec only 10 years ago, and given who they are issued to, I would imagine they would be staying in service until OSD....?
However, from what I've seen, the £90m order for these new L403A1's is initially only for 1,640 rifles, with an option to acquire a further 10,000 falling under a new £90m contract over the next decade.
So, maybe that initial 1640 will be to replace the L119A2's used by the various SF units, with the rest to be rolled out to all RM/Ranger/Para units later on?
Do the numbers of 11000 odd stack up to that though?
I'd bet that the L119A2 will remain in use with those currently using it (wonder how many L119A2's we have?) and the L403A1's will be on general issue to the rest of the RM/Ranger/Para's etc., to replace the L85's, as there will be a lot of commonality between the two anyway, which is why they are doing this.
Just the thing for putting round holes in square heads.
180,000,000 Div# 11,164 = $1,546.3917 GBP per weapon with the full contract however the initial 1,640 at $90,000,000 unit price balloons to $54,878.048/GBP per unit so someones grafting a good deal with the first issue if I'm correct!
So easy to spend big $'s when its not your own money I fully understand the need but boy someones killing the pig here!
PM
Originally Posted by CINDERS
