The new XM-7 Rifle for the Army...

[breamfisher]

Anyone heard about this?

https://youtu.be/HljpWBkQbgU?si=LBtPO9v6EaowXH9v

[Zsarvashere]

Only that it is heavy. Several times.

[CPJ 2.0]

Only that it is heavy. Several times.

Wrong. Not possible to be that heavy. Saw a guy on the tubes of you say so. I trust him. He should know

[Zsarvashere]

I've seen a retired cop from Georgia say otherwise.

[Centermass]

I’m not a fan of SIG. I think the pistols that we bought from them are poop, however are they are better than the Beretta.

With that said, they did a damn good job with the 6.8 and the new rifles.

You’ll see a lot of gray beards on the Internet, especially the ones from the Vietnam era, complain about the weight of the new rifle. What they don’t realize is while wars are still fault for interest, honor, and fear, the nature of warfare or the way that we kill each other has changed significantly. no one is humping that rifle through the jungle valleys of Southeast Asia for weeks on end.

One of the first things they teach you at the mountain warfare course is that ounces equal pounds, and pounds equal pain. Meaning that you will pack something saying oh it only weighs a couple of ounces. and you will do that five or six times and pretty soon you’ve added one to 2 pounds to your load. So when I tell you, the extra weight is negligible and welcomed with the larger caliber, I don’t say it casually.

Additionally, when we address gaps in lethality and survivability in the military, we talk in terms of risk and risk acceptance. So having a rifle and a round that penetrates the next generation body armor our peer adversaries are developing and a large potential to defeat light skin/armor, vehicles, far out ways the risk of reduced operational reach or operational endurance because of the weight of the rifle and round.

[Gene L]

There may come a time when battlefields are on level ground with good roads for personnel carriers so soldiers can ride to the battlefield, get out, fire a mag or two and retire. I don't think that's possible. Historically, in places like Afghanistan which has a lot of mountains, weight is an issue. Fourteen pounds, loaded. Clearing a village and humping 14 pounds has got to make a differnece. As exaggerated as that sounds, it's true and possibly it's the product of heads in Washington who never humped anything heavier than a stapler who made the decision. Personally, at the risk of beating a dead horse, I don't think it's going to happen. Destroying concrete blocks? I remember when the M 14 premiered, another heavy, bad choice destroyed a wall of concrete blocks...yes, I'm that old.

I'm not wedded to the M 6, although I like it a lot, and if the M 7 weighed 9 pounds, you wouldn't hear further from me.

[Zsarvashere]

Time will tell. I have read how the top brass loved the 5.56 and the M16. Then read for years how the humpers hated it's "less than lethal" terminal performance and how we need something different. I suspect very soon we will start hearing en masse all the gripes with the new platform. Nothing is perfect and people will always. B itch.

Not to agree too much with Gene, but I am pretty sure some CO is gonna have 14lbs shoved up his ass after ordering the second foot patrol of the week.

[Centermass]

There may come a time when battlefields are on level ground with good roads for personnel carriers so soldiers can ride to the battlefield, get out, fire a mag or two and retire. I don't think that's possible. Historically, in places like Afghanistan which has a lot of mountains, weight is an issue. Fourteen pounds, loaded. Clearing a village and humping 14 pounds has got to make a differnece. As exaggerated as that sounds, it's true and possibly it's the product of heads in Washington who never humped anything heavier than a stapler who made the decision. Personally, at the risk of beating a dead horse, I don't think it's going to happen. Destroying concrete blocks? I remember when the M 14 premiered, another heavy, bad choice destroyed a wall of concrete blocks...yes, I'm that old.

I'm not wedded to the M 6, although I like it a lot, and if the M 7 weighed 9 pounds, you wouldn't hear further from me.

Gene, even in Afghanistan, it was insertion, movement to contact, extraction. I don’t think I spent more than 48 hours in the mountains. Everything I’ve done in the last 29 years has been like that. In Iraq.. I didn’t ever carry more than 4 mags. Cause I had the truck within range for reload. It was what we all did.
No one is humping like your time in uniform.

[jkp]

Don't start bringing real world experience into this conversation!

[Centermass]

Don’t discount Gene’s Vietnam experience. We may be fighting differently now, but Gene’s era of war fighting was stuffed full of engagements and experiences that make most of my GWOT experiences look like simple training exercises

[GrapeApe]

I, for one, don't discount his experience. I do, however, discount it's current relevance.
Just as the trench warfare of WWI had little to no relevance in the European Theater of WWII.

[Gene L]

Cenlermass, were you an Infantryman?

[Diver43]

I, for one, don't discount his experience. I do, however, discount it's current relevance.
Just as the trench warfare of WWI had little to no relevance in the European Theater of WWII.

We must be prepared for everything. Think of the differences between Somalia, Panama and Saudi Arabia where Military from my time deployed.