Re: OICW

--- Tomb <tomb@dreammechanics.com> wrote:

> [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

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

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