A smart dawgie said:
yah. the ideal individual weapon for the US soldiers and marines of the 21st
century......
thanks but no thanks!
[Tomb] Hallelujah. I liked my FN. I also would have enjoyed the
CONSIDERABLY LIGHTER C7.
every soldier i have talked to about this weapon either burst out laughing, or
cringes when thinking of all of the potential problems that this little gem
represents.
[Tomb] Of course, the one thing it claims, which if it worked would be
great, is the ability to attack troops in defilade (I think I got that right)
by using airburst grenades. That one ability would make a big difference in
some kinds of fight. But not, IMO, 24 lbs. worth of difference.....
[Tomb] OTOH, I hear there is a bit of a thought of moving back more
towards the M240 because the M249 is seen as inadequate in some quarters as a
squad support weapon. I wouldn't be anxious to pig an M240 or its heavier ammo
either. Hell, give me an M4 and I'd probably have been just as happy as with
the FN! (After all, range is limited by "where can I
[quoted original message omitted]
> --- Tomb <tomb@dreammechanics.com> wrote:
> [Tomb] OTOH, I hear there is a bit of a thought of
We never moved away from it. Here's what happened:
Once upon a time, the US Army had an automatic rifle
(the BAR) and a light machinegun (the M-1919 .30 cal).
Then came the Great Advent of the Assault Rifle, and the automatic rifle was
declared obsolete. It's role
would be filled by an M-14 firing on full automatic.
Also about this time, the M-1919 was replaced by a bad
copy of the MG34, the M-60. Yeah, verily it was
discovered that the M-14 was uncontrollable on full
auto and the M-16 was introduced. And it sucked much.
So the M-16A1 was introduced, and it didn't suck. So
in the great wisdom of the Infantry branch, the US
Army now had a light machinegun (still the M-60, now
with alphanumeric designations trailing after it's
name). We had a rifle (the M-16A1) and an automatic
rifle (an M-16A1 with the selector lever on full
automatic). And verily we discovered in the early 1980s that this was
inadequate. Lo, the Infantry looked across the waters and discovered the
industrious tribe of Belgae. And verily did they look upon a product of these
Belgae and declared it to be GOOD. And they took the Minimi and renamed it the
M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon and issued it to American
soldiers in place of the M-16A1 with selector lever on
full automatic. And then they looked at their squads and said, "Hell, we don't
need all these automatic
weapons" and they introduced the M-16A2 which did not
go onto full automatic and had a few other improvements. So all was good, and
the Panamanians and Iraqis were smote mightily. Then the eyes of the Infantry
fell upon the Belgae and another of their products and said, "Damn, but this
is a far better copy of the MG34 than we have" and they bought what the rest
of the world had been calling an FN MAG for
three decades and declared it to be the M-240.
Now verily, there were a bunch of foreigners who
jumped on the bandwagon and purchased the M-249 SAW as
well. And verily they were struck with a great confusion and thought this was
a light machinegun! And they spake aloud "This sucketh!" and there was weeping
and gnashing of teeth.
And the Americans wondered what in hell the whining was about.
> John Atkinson wrote:
*SNIP*
Armaments, Chapter Chapter Two, Verse One Through Twenty-Six......
Great poetry it ain't but I like the beat, you can dance to it.
Gracias,
Glenn/Triphibious@juno.com
This is my Science Fiction Alter Ego E-mail address.
Historical - Warbeads@juno.com
Fantasy and 6mm - dwarf_warrior@juno.com
On Wed, 30 Jan 2002 13:23:50 -0800 (PST) John Atkinson
> <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com> writes: