Army Interim Combat Service Rifle RFP releases.

[ABNAK]

Well if the purpose is to defeat certain ceramic body armour's could we be chasing a technological goal who's finish line always move further forward?
It would seem advances in ammunition would be an interim fix, but 7.62 is going to still have limitations. Weight for Soldiers being one of it major issues.
When we finally do have the perfect ammunition for this hypothetical body armour, will it have an ice pick effect when it hits those without body armour?

Absolutely. I remember when Level III (SAPI) was the in thing. Then it was Level IV (E-SAPI). Now there is rumored to be a Level V (Uber-SAPI?). Yes, it is a continuously forward-moving evolution of body armor. Catch up now ballistic-wise and in 10 years (or less) you're behind again.

[Failure2Stop]

Well if the purpose is to defeat certain ceramic body armour's could we be chasing a technological goal who's finish line always move further forward?
It would seem advances in ammunition would be an interim fix, but 7.62 is going to still have limitations. Weight for Soldiers being one of it major issues.
When we finally do have the perfect ammunition for this hypothetical body armour, will it have an ice pick effect when it hits those without body armour?

Absolutely. I remember when Level III (SAPI) was the in thing. Then it was Level IV (E-SAPI). Now there is rumored to be a Level V (Uber-SAPI?). Yes, it is a continuously forward-moving evolution of body armor. Catch up now ballistic-wise and in 10 years (or less) you're behind again.

Yup.
And the fact of the matter is that man-portable armor really only covers 1) a small area of the target whole, and 2) stuff that makes you die when perforated, even if the hole is relatively small.
Discussing armor alone; look at what happened to tank development. Tells a pretty good tale of what's now happening.
No disagreement from me on the burden of a 7.62 platform at a non-specialist level, but ultimately that's up to them to decide, and the whole reason for the multiple submissions and requirement development.

[MountainRaven]

Absolutely. I remember when Level III (SAPI) was the in thing. Then it was Level IV (E-SAPI). Now there is rumored to be a Level V (Uber-SAPI?). Yes, it is a continuously forward-moving evolution of body armor. Catch up now ballistic-wise and in 10 years (or less) you're behind again.

I believe it's X-SAPI. Apparently they have been made, are so heavy and bulky that even US .mil brass doesn't want to issue them without cause, and thus are sitting in a warehouse in Kuwait, waiting for somebody in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Syria to be killed by some super-bullet that can defeat E-SAPIs.

[BoringGuy45]

Armor vs. weapon has been a struggle for pretty much all of recorded history. It's a vicious cycle:

-Armor is invented to protect against the weapons of the day
-New weapons render armor ineffective
-With armor no longer effective, armies begin fighting without armor in order to be quicker and more agile
-High casualties lead to the invention of armor able to better protect against the new weapons
-New armor renders new weapons ineffective
-New weapons render new armor ineffective. Soldiers fight without armor until high casualties become a bigger issue.
-Rinse
-Repeat

[MountainRaven]

The program is reportedly dead. Dee-ee-dee, dead.

Link: BREAKING: Army 7.62mm Rifle Program CANCELLED - ICSR is No More - The Firearm Blog.

[BoringGuy45]

Well, I'm not surprised.

My guess is that the people who pushed for this idea were guys who never served in combat and got their advice from old timers who insisted that we would have won Vietnam if we had a rifle "designed to kill instead of just wound."

[Ron3]

As the early posters (including me) predicted in this thread There was never a chance this would happen. And I'm not a big fan of the m4 or 5.56.

[tom12.7]

I'm glad to see this die out, but I do see a role for 7.62 for some uses.

[mack7.62]

LSAT is coming, it only makes sense.

[Slater]

Textron has been working on this, but it always seemed to me like it was another dead-end project:

http://www.textronsystems.com/what-w...r-systems/LSAT