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I think that anyone who is going to consider future warfare really needs to stop dredging up outdated references for close quarters combat. Drawing on Age of Musket or even WW2 references for future warfare settings seems pretty silly when most of those past scenarios don't even hold up in present warfare conditions.
In the vast diversity of human future weapons, it seems very unlikely that anybody is going to really focus on improving the close combat hth weapon. I am no expert, but it seems we haven't bothered in the 60 years since WW2. Bayonets exist but only as a possible weapon and have been greatly reduced in their size. Hitting sombody with a rifle or stabbing them with your knife is about as far as most close combats seem to go as far as I know.
You guys actually in the military or whatever can correct me and please do, but does it really seem that HTH weapons are likely to come back on their own.
Now, if we run into an alien species (or terrestrial faction) that still digs HTH due to either technical limitations or cultural affectations, there might be a sudden shift. It might start with field expedient weapons and then evolve into a manufactured conversion or even a purpose-built tool.
A good example of this is in World War Z, where they end up manufacturing a bladed field tool by the millions and distribute across the nation as an effective weapon against the sudden appearance of millions of zombies.
Bottom line, who knows what the future will bring. If it stays human on human warfare, we're not likely to see HTH weapons make a come-back unless we bomb ourselves into the stone-age but hey, that's a fun wargame too.
-Eli
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