Weapons

Pentagon Takes New Look at Rifles, Ammo

The service has been employing its standard-issue M4 carbine since the 1960s while steadily making improvements to the system over time. But now, the rifle’s 5.56 mm round may not be able to penetrate enemies’ newly developed body armor, officials said.

During a Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee hearing last year, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., noted that “everyone from Russia and China, to Hezbollah” and the Islamic State is employing advanced armor that “risks making the 5.56 round essentially obsolete.”

However, the cartridge still has advantages when compared to the 7.62 mm round, which is also being considered as the caliber for a new rifle, Cotton said. Soldiers can carry twice as many, shoot with less recoil and shoot in quicker succession with more accuracy, he noted.

“The key is finding the right combination of weight, recoil, impulse, range and lethality,” he said.

Thomas Spoehr, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, said the M4 rifle is often criticized for its lack of lethality at ranges greater than 300 meters and its tendency to jam when firing a large number of rounds. Soldiers often have to engage at ranges greater than 300 meters when operating in Afghanistan, he noted in an interview with National Defense.