Someone asked the question in this thread http://invision.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=5047 about about how much continuous fire untill you damage a weapon barrell.

I thought this recent clip about the new XM8 Assault Rifle to replaces the M-16 was interesting:

Observations include:

• It's more versatile than the old M-16 rifle it will replace and should fire thousands of rounds before jamming, rather than the few hundred shots before the M-16 typically jams.

• It's much easier to clean and maintain.

• Training time is reduced since it's a single weapon that can be modified to fire short distances, long distances, launch grenades, etc.

• It should last longer, with barrels able to fire 15,000 rounds before being replaced rather than the 6,000 to 9,000 rounds it takes to wear out an M-16 barrel. Developers are trying to push the XM8 barrels to 20,000 rounds before replacement.

The XM8 will cost more to make initially, but should settle into a full-rate production cost of $600 to $700 a copy. That compares to $500 for the M-16 and $950 for the M4 carbine.

Source: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/...3/mn/mn01a.html

Please tell me thats not the actual picture of the weapon. Please. It looks like its made by Fisher Price. Baby's first assault rifle.

Oh geez, you're right.

Maybe it's to make it look less intimidating to the local population in urban environments...

Their design department has been watching too much deep space 9.

Actually that's a direct quote from the article, so I guess *they're* the corporate shills

Still, that can't possibly be the actual gun. Who would go into combat with a multicolored assault rifle that looks like it was made of plastic? It's got to be some kind of prototype.

And here I thought the IOCW looked silly, this thing looks like its cheep plastic! Dammit, an assault rifle is supposed to be SCARY, it shoots things. Nice to know what my tax dollers are going to...

I think the final version will be in the black & gray livery - http://world.guns.ru/assault/as61-e.htm

A target that is too busy laughing to shoot back is a target that is easily killed.

Not the kind of victory you want made into a movie, but still victory.

If you watched the prototype firing videos released a while ago, the gun was simply plain black. The strange colors are either variations on environmental patterns (eg the brown and tan furniture possibly for desert deployment) or prototype coloring. No silly XM8 logo on the real thing, either. Past that, it's not exactly the best looking rifle I've ever seen and I do see the DS9 resemblance, but it's not quite that bad. Certainly not the hilarious looking ockup that once was the OICW.

Maybe the design is part of the "Look, killing people is just like a video game!" mentality they're going for nowadays with grunts.

The sad part is that HK had originally planned a more angular, traditional look for the weapon, but the army actually requested this monstrosity. The old design was "too European", whatever the hell that means.

It may be an ugly rifle, but if it can deliver everything it's promising, I won't complain overmuch.

-Siege

So what happens to the OICW? Totally scrapped or reserved for special forces or whatever?

or just go underbarrel & singel shot just like what you have on the current m4/m16. from what i understand the forgrip is removeable to reveal attatchment points for stuff like that...

i know, and its had the magazine for the grenades in the stock fo the rifle itself.

i read your line about issueing the launcher to a single grunt or squad as issueing as a seperate weapon, i guess i read it wrongly...

On the design front, isn't this basically what people said when the first M-16's came out- that it looked too much like it should have Mattel stamped on it?

SOme of the early M-16s did have Mattel stamped on them...

not kidding, look it up.

Just to clarify, the OICW, eventually designated XM29, never made it out of the experimental stage. It was a bulky, useless cumbersome grenade launcher strapped on top of a short carbine. But here's the problem: the advantage of a short carbine is maneuverability— for which it must sacrifice range, stopping power, penetration, fragmentation, accuracy, etc. When you tie 10 fucking pounds of grenade launcher on top, you've pretty much wasted your time. This, of course, occurred to no one on the project, which happily spent loads of money trying to make the thing work.

Needless to say, it didn't, but the 20mm platform and airburst capable grenade launcher was, at least in the eyes of the military, viable. The weapon was split in two, and the short carbine, which was based on the G36, was used as the basis of the XM8 series. The grenade launcher is the XM25, and is essentially the grenade launcher of the OICW/XM29 ripped off and turned into a standalone weapon, carried in somewhat similar fashion to the M79 of old(e).

Do not, however, think that this means 40mm is out. There are still 40mm attachments for the XM8 series (not using the current RIS standard; there is a specific quick attach system for the XM8 which is supposedly superior and can be adapted to current rails if need be), and they will likely be carried in squads in addition to the presence of a dedicated grenadier.

And that's about enough of that.

not to mention the Mk-19 automatic grenade launcher--more fun than a burning nunnery!

Well, the Mk19 is a different brand of 40mm altogether from what people generally know from the M79 and M203 type stuff.

But hey, fun is fun— and everbody knows fun rules.

bah, don't you read your SR? they're both grenade launchers, ergo they both use the same ammo !!

now who the hell needs a grenade launcher that can do fully automatic fire? if you need to reduce a area to is component molecules then you call those nice people in the rocket silos, thats what they are there for

but i guess the military never knew what the word overkill meant

The Mk19 has a bit more oomph that a M2 but you can still mount it on light vehicles. The next step up is really light cannon, but you need a much heavier platform for that. You can stick a Mk19 on top of a Humvee and get fire support out to about 1 mile

overkill is the word of the day when the bad guys come at you in waves. it's also handy to be able to arc your fire over an obstruction.

I think it'd look allright in black if they just did something about that stupid stock that really does look like something belonging on a plastic Star Trek prop...

Of course, why they couldn't just use the damn G36 and rename it is beyond me. Abyone with a clue knows it's a slightly re-designed G36 anyway, and everyone else will never know or care.

The XM8 is not a G36. It is a development of the adapted short carbine portion of the OICW/XM29, which was itself an adaptation of the G36. They are related, but they are not the same gun.

"• It's more versatile than the old M-16 rifle it will replace and should fire thousands of rounds before jamming, rather than the few hundred shots before the M-16 typically jams."

This could mean two different things:

1) The XM8 should be able to fire several thousand rounds continuously before jamming.

2) Each shot fired has a 1/"several thousands" chance of causing a jam.

A fairly thorough page on the XM-8

The Russian Gun Page with some interesting photos

-Siege

or, it could mean the XM-8 can fire can fire several thousand rounds sporadically--eg, normal use--before jamming.

The main change with the XM-8's operating system is a gas piston to operate the bolt, rather than blowing propellant gas straight through the tube and running the bolt with that like on the M-16. That keeps it from spewing carbon deposits all over the workings of the gun the way the M-16 does, which accounts for your improvement in reliability. Of course, that means that Heckler & Koch have just invented the AR-18 . . .

...right. it couldn't be an attempt to create a more advanced fighting force. the XM-8 might not be a stupendously badass leap in technology, but how about the XM-312--a fifty-cal machine gun that weighs, as i recall, only a hundred pounds with tripod. the US Army is attempting to undergo a massive shift in the next 10-20 years, changing out pretty much everything they use. so, no. they're not interested in what everyone else is using now--they want what everyone else will want to be using in twenty years.

One downside to the Mk-19 is the long standoff range. The fuze won't function til it goes 20-30m, and it's a not a great idea to shoot anything inside 75m or so.

I have also heard reports that they can be unreliable once mother nature gets inside it.

Mechanically though, it's pretty cool. Ya gotta respect a weapon with a bolt that weighs more than most assault rifles.

was not HK mixed into with the OICW project? whats stopping them from useing what they have learned in the G36 and then when the us military comes talking they take some of the internal design of the G36 and stuff it into the XM8?