The M16/M4 has peaked, as far as the rifle itself it's about as good as it's ever going to be. As near as I can tell one of the goals of the Next Gen is to be able to defeat Level 4 plates, necessary goal or not nothing you can fit into a M4 mag is going to be able to do this. Even if the rifle doesn't pan out if a viable MG using a cartridge that is lighter and greatly outperforms the 7.62 comes out of this it will be worthwhile.