[GZG] QUESTION: are SAWs becoming less significant...?

A question for discussion by the ListMind Gestalt, especially those 
elements of it with Real World(tm) experience of such things......

Do SAWs become less significant in terms of the overall firepower of 
a squad or fireteam, as the tech level of the individual soldiers' 
weapons increases?

In the case of WW2, the German MG34 or MG42 was often quoted as being 
the main weapon of their infantry squad, with the riflemen being 
little more than ammunition porters to keep the LMG fed.  This we can 
consider the LMG/SAW to represent a very large part of the squad's 
aggregate firepower output, with the rest of the soldiers' individual 
weapons adding relatively little.

In the present day, when (in most armies anyway) each soldier carries 
an individual weapon capable of a considerable fully-automatic 
firepower output, the SAW is obviously still useful - but it probably 
doesn't represent quite as large a % of the squad's total firepower 
as the LMG did in earlier times.

Extrapolating this to near (or far) future weapons, will this trend 
continue? Will the individual soldiers' weapons get better to a 
degree that the SAW becomes effectively obsolete because EVERYONE can 
lay down a huge amount of automatic fire?

Or, should we assume that the SAW will increase in effectiveness in 
proportion as well, so will still represent a significant fraction of 
the overall firepower?

Discuss......	;-)

Jon (GZG)

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