Non-Subscriber Extract
Executive Overview: Jane's Infantry Weapons 2004-05
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| 12 December 2003 |
By Richard D Jones, Editor
Earlier thrusts to provide more technologically advanced weaponry in the form of fully integrated future soldier systems have been overtaken by the pragmatic need to provide those now engaged in military operations with the best equipment currently available.
As dictated by necessity, this has led to the fielding of incremental improvements to existing weapons as they become available, together with a more rigorous approach to delivering the equipment into the hands of these troops.
Ongoing military operations have, in little more than a decade, again resulted in the engagement of US-led coalition forces in large-scale combat operations in Iraq. The full range of infantry weapons have seen use, excepting air-defence weapons which, while deployed, have not been confronted with a viable air threat.
Of particular note has been the re-emergence of the sniper on the battlefield. Snipers not only have been armed with traditional rifle-calibre equipment but have also employed large-calibre rifles to very good effect, either in the precision shooting role or as anti-matériel rifles. The ability to put a much larger projectile, with an effective payload, on to a target well beyond traditional rifle-calibre ranges (reportedly in excess of 2,000 m in the sniper role) has given the infantry section not only an increase in sub-unit firepower but also flexibility of usage. It has also allowed the avoidance of collateral damage that in the past would have resulted from the use of guided or unguided area munitions to neutralise a distant threat.
Another observable trend over the past year or more, though not greatly remarked upon, has been the delay in fielding complete soldier systems, such as the US Future Soldier or the UK Future Infantry Soldier Technology (FIST) programmes. The full cost impact of such individual equipment has become apparent, and time-lines as to when such systems will actually come into service have become blurred. The much-publicised Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW) programme has in this respect appeared to fall victim to the more immediate needs of the US armed forces.
The War on Terror has engendered many changes, and details of some new US developments have emerged over the past year. First, it now appears that the XM29 OICW will probably be abandoned in favour of two stand-alone weapons. The first is the Heckler & Koch XM8 assault rifle, which is under consideration as a replacement for the M16 and M4 family of rifles and carbines. This rifle will be evaluated during 2004, and if tests are successful, it may enter US service as early as 2005.
Alliant Technologies is now showing a semi-automatic grenade launcher chambered for the 25 mm Objective Crew-Served Weapon (OCSW) cartridge. Although US Army spokespersons state that the XM29 programme has not been abandoned, the absence of the XM29 and the presence of two new and separate systems at recent trade shows indicate otherwise. If the XM8 were to be adopted by the US Army without competition from alternative designs, it would be an unprecedented event in US small-arms history.
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