Pentagon Confirms Move to 6.8mm in the Future

[Elderberry]

Shooting Illustrated by Guy J. Sagi 6/27/2019

Sources in the Department of Defense have confirmed there is no basis to conjecture that the U.S. Military is settling on or even considering a 6.5 Creedmoor chambering in its search for the Next Generation Squad Weapon-Rifle and Next Generation Squad Weapon-Automatic Rifle. Instead, senior military leaders are focusing on 6.8mm-caliber firearms for future deployment.

“We’re working with our industry partners to develop the most accurate and effective weaponry and ammunitions in the world using emerging materials and technologies,” Col. Kurt Thompson, deputy director of the Soldier Lethality Cross Functional Team explained to Shooting Illustrated in an e-mail. “We’re urgently and actively posturing our Close Combat Force for the fight of the future in multiple domains, and senior leaders have selected the 6.8 mm as the caliber for our future weapons systems.”

Widespread speculation that the U.S. military was considering the smaller-diameter cartridge followed FN America’s unveiling of a 6.5 Creedmoor-chambered variant of its MK 48 machine gun at the 2019 Special Operations Forces of Industry Conference (SOFIC). “The prototype FN MK 48 Mod 2 6.5CM features the latest upgrades for FN’s series of light and medium machine guns,” the introductory press release states. “…Once development is complete, existing MK 48 Mod 1 models can be configured at the armorer level to the Mod 2 variant or newest caliber with the addition of the upgrade kit and barrel conversion.”—an attractive option when retrofits are less expensive than all-new guns.

More: https://www.shootingillustrated.com/articles/2019/6/27/pentagon-confirms-move-to-68mm-in-the-future/