The Army's new rifle

[727Sky]

From a friend at D.I. who replied as Malevolent Twitch w

You know... I had been preparing a rant to dispel just about everything in that AI voiced hype video, but decided against it for time being because it was becoming exceedingly long and the important part at the moment is the armor penetration potential. Now, as per NIJ standards;

RF3 (Formerly Level IV) plate must be able to stop at least one round of .30-06 M2 AP with a 2880 ft/s reference velocity...

The reason they did this rehash was because of the addition of the category, RF2, which was commonly referred to as Level III+, specifically for stopping intermediate cartridges such as the M193 and the M855 5.56... What's interesting about this is the testing parameters have reference velocities for both rounds exceeding 3000 ft/s... 

Now... Why is this important? Because the difference in weight between Level III+ and Level IV (RF2 / RF3) plates is only like 3 lbs or so per plate, and as the previous links / videos I provided have shown, the "not-spicy" version 6.8x51 has difficulty defeating Level IV plates... So it's really not much of an improvement.

All of this is a moot point, because those plates aren't designed to keep you in the fight... They're designed to keep you alive. I mean these plates still only really cover the vitals so the best defense is still not getting hit in the first place. 


Source
https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/equipment-and...ard-012300
If you'll allow me to double up on the tinfoil I'm wearing today, the only reason I can see at all to pull a weapon system from independent testing prematurely is "Graft." Especially when the current service pistol, the M17 / M18, purposed service rifle, and purposed LMG, and the ammunition for the rifle and LMG are all designed / manufactured by the same entity... That's never happened before. So how did Sig get awarded all 3 contracts in the first place?


Well, first we actually have to look at the U.S. Army's "Modular Handgun System" contract. Sig won the contract largely because of cost, to the tune of $103 million in savings over Glock... and secondly, in my opinion, Sig has a U.S. based firm under it's umbrella. Glock even tried to protest, citing issues with a lack of testing, reliability concerns, and accuracy issues. Which the Government Accountability Office straight up denied. The main reason? Money. 

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/s...ract-44447

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/looks-li...tem-award/

Hell, in Glock's own words, and please forgive my citing the redacted GAO release, they cite that their protest was essentially because Glock,
"asserts that the Army evaluated proposals unequally by improperly waiving a key subfactor evaluation for Sig Sauer."

https://www.gao.gov/products/b-414401#:~...em%20(MHS).


Fast forward 8 years and Sig is currently under a lot of fire, pun intended, for some potentially dangerous issues regarding the new service pistol's ability to... How do I put this? Ejaculate prematurely when teased in just the right way. It is so bad that, "numerous shooting ranges, training academies, and organizations have banned the P320 (Civilian speak for the M17 / M18), particularly variants without an external manual safety, due to documented incidents of unintentional discharge, which can occur when the weapon is dropped."


So this is where I bring it back to the M7 / M250.... What happens when each handshake also includes a wad of cash to look the other way in regards to flawed systems? That's right, the deck gets stacked in favor of the intended victor. The Army decided that it needed a new rifle because of body armor penetration issues and being able to engage at longer distances, or some such.... Yet single shot tests against Level IV and Level IV+ plates (modern ballistic plate body armor), not even at the ranges being touted... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGL9wP8_-LI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTAfS1addXU

...As an aside, fast forward to around 6:20 in the Garand Thumb video (Video 2) to skip all the hype and bullshit. 


Note: Highlighted section shamefully copy and pasted from Google AI because it is just THAT well known of a problem and I didn't feel like citing another article unnecessarily.


It's not "new journalism" though. It's graft plain and simple, my friend. Let me explain...

Every few years or so, for as long as i can remember, the Army Ordnance Corps has put out a call to replace Eugene Stoner's design. Hell, from my perspective, with the changes they demanded of the OG M16 that caused all of the early issues in the field? It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that the changes weren't about budget constraints as claimed, but rather corporate sabotage on a "Military Industrial Complex" level. You have to take a look at what the original field testers, reported about the rifle that was handed to them...

As a note: The rifles as Eugene Stoner originally designed were actually issued, initially, to some groups that kind of weren't supposed be there... (I'll see if I find the actual reports. I know I have them around somewhere... ) ...and they fucking loved the thing. Go figure. And this is pre-STANAG 5.56, mind you...

But Army Ordnance had to fuck with it, because that's what they do to anything they don't like. I mean... Think about the logic behind their insistence of a Forward Assist for a moment... if you have to force a round into a chamber it clearly doesn't want to enter, something is wrong with the weapon... Yet, it is a must have for some reason. And that wasn't the only change they made either, the worst being the change to the ammunition itself... but keep in mind Springfield Armory's baby M1 Garand, the M14, was the AOC favorite. It had reach, it had legs, a wooden stock, etc... We all know the story... But!!! It's too fucking heavy. The recoil in Full Auto is nearly unmanageable because of the stock design. The magazines are limited to 20 rounds, and they're too heavy as well. The list goes on. If we look at it from a purely dispassionate position, the M14 is actually a kind of shit rifle... And the only reason why it is looked at in such a good light is because the M16 that was actually issued to the rank and file grunts in Vietnam, wasn't EXACTLY the rifle Eugene Stoner designed, and on top of that, the AOC claimed that, "It's a rifle that cleans itself!" 

Now let me ask you, who the fuck doesn't issue a cleaning kit to soldiers in a gahdsdamn swamp ass jungle?!?