"Buck Rogers; your new rifle is ready"

[Dr Mordrid]

It's called the OICW, for "objective individual combat weapon", and it's a badass SOB.....

OICW article....

Dr. Mordrid

[KvHagedorn]

5.56mm is a bit small. I would prefer a .30cal/7.62mm

[Dr Mordrid]

The 5.56 has worked for the M-16 for almost 40 years. Having shot it in hunting rifles it's pretty deadly, and very accurate at long range.

Dr. Mordrid

[Wombat]

Yes, not to mention that the 7.62 has enough recoil to make your aim useless.


Looking at the new toy, I'm kind of surprised that the lower part isn't a trendy little bullpup design.

And no hint of a little retractable stock or mount to just use the machine gun portion. Any idea if this thing needs all of the components in order to work? I'd hope that the HE launcher could still work of the "targeting computer" was disabled.

[Dr Mordrid]

It's apparently modular, meaning if necessary you could strip it down to the minimum of just the 5.56 section without the grenade launcher etc.

AFAIK the grenade launcher will work without the computer, but without the explode at set range feature.

Dr. Mordrid

[Wombat]

Yeah, but I couldn't figure out if it was modular as in "swap and replace" or "works individually."

I mean, that picture even shows the "sling" accessory, but there's no sign of a stock for the 5.56. I looked at it and thought "hmm, kinda MP5."

[Dr Mordrid]

It might well have a folding wire or plastic stock on the right side of the 5.56 module, similar to many other commando rifles around the world.

Dr. Mordrid

[Wombat]

Hmm, no luck finding out what's so special about the ammo. I wonder what this "test ammo" will have that NATO 5.56 doesn't.

edit: I'm dumb. The 4700 rounds are probably all HE.

[Dr Mordrid]

Who knows? My guess is no difference other than that targeting computer, the explode at range grenades and the targeting computer. That and it'll be a load lighter than the M-16. That alone should make it friends.

Dr. Mordrid

[MultimediaMan]

All is not well with the OICW: The barrel length of the OICW is 12" As we found out in Afghanistan, the short barrel (14.5") of the M4 Carbine seriously limited the combat range of the 5.56mm NATO round...torso hits at ranges greater than 100 meters were not reliable manstoppers. Conventional M16A2s, with ther 5.5 to 6" Longer barrels were much better stoppers, as well as much easier on the ears.

The Marine Corps has just rejected the M4 in favor of the proposed M16A3, which retains the long barrel of the M16A2.

The OICW 20mm Grenade uses an electronic fuse that determines the range to target by measuring how many revolutions it makes (The spin is a fairly constant rate) before detonating. There are also crush sensors that will allow the round "count" the number of penetrations through obstacles before detonation (i.e. a Door or a pane of glass.)

However, this electronic fuse may be susceptible to ECM. The 20mm Grenade offers less killing power than a conventionally-fused 40mm Grenade. However, HK and SACO defense are actively looking at electronic fusing options for their 40mm Grenade Machinegun platforms: most 40mm Grenades use more than half of their volume for a bulky mechanical fuse arrangement. Payload could be increased with no mechanical changes to existing weapons. There is also a practical consideration: Larger Diameter grenades are better armour piercers due to the nature of their Self-Forging Penetrator warheads.

At $20,000 a pop, with no units designated to field them before 2007, only time will tell if the OICW comes to fruition or is overtaken by other technologies/ mission requirements.

[GT98]

Originally posted by MultimediaMan
The Marine Corps has just rejected the M4 in favor of the proposed M16A3, which retains the long barrel of the M16A2.

The US Army has already fielded the M16A4, Which is just a M16A2 with a removible "luggage" Handle that can suppport different sights and a front hand grip that screws into the bottom of the front hand guard. The A3 Model is the same except it goes back to the Fully Auto selection of the M16 and M16A1 instead of 3 Round burst option that was first introduced on the M16A2

[Belwarrior]

having used M16A1 before and being used to the full auto mode, i am not sure about the advantage of the 3 round burst mode. i can do a 3 or 4 round burst or a full spray depending on the situation on the full mode. i suppose the 3 round burst would be considered to be more accurate and closely clustered but IMHO leaves a soldier less effective against numbers higher than two

[GT98]

Originally posted by Belwarrior
having used M16A1 before and being used to the full auto mode, i am not sure about the advantage of the 3 round burst mode. i can do a 3 or 4 round burst or a full spray depending on the situation on the full mode. i suppose the 3 round burst would be considered to be more accurate and closely clustered but IMHO leaves a soldier less effective against numbers higher than two

Well the reason the US Army had full auto on the M16A1 was that they thought they could use the M16 to be the rifleman's rifle and the Squad Automatic Weapon with the same rifle. The US found out that the M16A1 didnt make a good Squad Automatic weapon due to limited ammo supply and brought out the M249 SAW to replace the M16 in that Role.