Corps Wants to Put Silencers on a Whole Infantry Battalion

[Woobie]

Chesty was harsh from what I hear, but Mattis is still around to kick your a**!



Hopefully they get new barrels to drop them even more. Not like they are subject to the NFA rules.

Kobe has a point. It's one more thing to keep track of in the woods, and keep clean in the mud. Once it gets lost, or torn up, you gotta pay the piper.

As to barrel length, we're already having trouble with engaging targets in Afghanistan. Every battlefield is different, but we don't have the budget to have multiple uppers for each infantryman. It would be cool, though. So when you talk about shortening a 14.5" barrel, you're removing more of the functionality it already sucks at.

 

[cop car]

Silencers make it a whole lot harder to identify where you are being shot at from. Not to mention the night fire benifits. I think it's time for bullpups though. Much easier to have a 14-16 inch barrel with a silencer on the end of it.

 

[phylodog]

Did you receive an e mail yet ?????

Nope. Not surprising though, I'm rather unremarkable. I made an appearance on the news last night/this morning and only two people noticed me. I'm ok with it.

 

[Excalibur]

Silencers make it a whole lot harder to identify where you are being shot at from. Not to mention the night fire benifits. I think it's time for bullpups though. Much easier to have a 14-16 inch barrel with a silencer on the end of it.

I agree with that. Suppressors added length to rifles that were meant for CQB and to fully get the benefit of suppressors and CQB, you’d need to shorten the rifle down to 10ins like some special forces look, otherwise, a 14.5in M4 can easily go back to being as odd to handle in close quarters like a full size M16. A bullpup would eliminate that problem in CQB. But the costs for transitioning the size of the inventory in the US military wouldn’t be feasible.

 

[cop car]

It's going to happen. Just a matter of when. Not if. Question is will they transfer to the caseless round at the same time. The next leap in what our military uses is going to be mind boggling and it will be in the next 20 years. A silencer on the end of a bull pup is way more manageable and comfortable. Less of a lever pulling down on you. A 14.5 M4 is good inside a house. A 14.5 M4 with a can on it goes back to not being so good.

 

[Woobie]

The Army was trying to work on bull pups back in the 60's, as well as caseless ammunition. And they've been flirting with them off and on ever since. I hate bull pups, but I suppose it's a possibility for the future.

 

[Beowulf]

They could solve this by issuing two different uppers to most ground troops. A 16" barrel for out in the open fighting and a 10" barrel for close in CQB with a suppressor. Swapping an upper on an AR takes a few seconds (and an update to the 40+ year old pin design could make that even simpler).

Sure, it's extra gear for the guys to hump, but gone are the days where our soldiers are walking 40 miles from a supply head into combat (outside of some fairly rare circumstances, which are usually done by specialized troops anyway, like Rangers or Seals, etc).

Or, just switch to a bullpup already, like a number of other modern armies have (Brits, Israelis, Belgians, French, Australians, Austrians, Chinese, etc)

 

[cop car]

5.56 should never be shorter than 14.5

 

[Woobie]

They could solve this by issuing two different uppers to most ground troops. A 16" barrel for out in the open fighting and a 10" barrel for close in CQB with a suppressor. Swapping an upper on an AR takes a few seconds (and an update to the 40+ year old pin design could make that even simpler).

Sure, it's extra gear for the guys to hump, but gone are the days where our soldiers are walking 40 miles from a supply head into combat (outside of some fairly rare circumstances, which are usually done by specialized troops anyway, like Rangers or Seals, etc).

Or, just switch to a bullpup already, like a number of other modern armies have (Brits, Israelis, Belgians, French, Australians, Austrians, Chinese, etc)

Rare instances like the entire war in Afghanistan?

And please stop using that word Bullpup. I don't want anyone in the Pentagon getting any bad ideas.

 

[T.Lex]

And please stop using that word Bullpup. I don't want anyone in the Pentagon getting any bad ideas.

Sorry, dude, that ship (the LCS) has sailed.

And the fighter (the F-35) flown.

I could go on....

 

[Woobie]

Sorry, dude, that ship (the LCS) has sailed.

And the fighter (the F-35) flown.

I could go on....

Your argument is incontrovertible.