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The last 2 US service rifles didn't do too well out the block. The M14 being so bad it got binned quite quickly whereas the M16 went on to one of the best weapon platforms out there. The M7 will mostly likely be adapted however unlike the previous 2 it's not just a replacement weapon. You have integrated optics, 3 bullet variations with the high powered version able to penetrate level 3a/4 at 800 yards and it's suppressed to reduce the noise signature making it harder to pin point your fire position. The next war being planned is most likely China who's troops will be armed with body armour. The previous conflicts using 556 proved that 556 just annoys the bad guys when they are high on drugs, plus they fired from stand off positions making the 556 ineffective at range. The M7 with the high powered cartridge will overcome the body armour and lethality at ranges unseen on a modern general issue weapon. On the topic of drones this problem will likely be solved during the Ukraine war. At a guess using electronic counter measures and the drones greatest strength is also it's biggest weakness. The ability to see your target and drive straight into it has been a game changer over traditional artillery (and the Ukrainians use the drone because they have limited artillery shells) however if you stop a drone from seeing then it's just another artillery shell. Once someone figures out how to blind a drone the threat will be reduced. If you think that this doesn't apply to fibre drone then I'm talking about the camera on the drone itself not the drone feedback to the operator and with the drone blind AI would be useless as well apart from predictive targeting based on the last known image Going back to the M7 and the 6.8mm round this will probably become the new NATO round simply because the US dictate which round is the NATO round. The fact that the British are looking to replace the SA80 with something in the 6.5 or 6.5 calibre suggests that moves are afoot to make the 6.8 the new NATO round. The 6.5 is probably a red herring (a bit like the EM1, good idea but shelved because the US wanted 7.62). I hope we don't try to make something ourselves as we have lost that skill and the skill fade is even bigger since we designed the SA80. It's probably best to go to someone who knows what they are doing (HK, SIG, LMT, etc) and just license build them in the UK.

I get the reasoning why it was tendered for the specific specs it has but I'm sure you could get most of the way there at a fraction of the cost by simply bumping up the numbers of DMRs with 7.62mm or 6.8mm or whatever for reaching out for the longer threats and leaving your regular infantry with 5.56 with a sensible amount of rounds available. The fact that in wargames, guys are running out of ammo mid firefights and are needing resupply is somewhat concerning. The future doesn't look great for it imo.

We've had this one here before, the issue is that the aimpoint is most likely genuine. It's obviously not an M2 but it does match the M4 I have (and notably doesn't have the design differences that my repro m4 has) He's ruined it with the paintjob though and frankly if he gave it a decent paintjob and wrote on the listing what's actually on the gun then he'd have a much better chance of selling it

Ah, yes! That is a damned fine reason.

Will we see an airsoft M250 in due course?

I guess we've been watching the same YouTube channels. The thing is any new weapon or bit of kit is going to have unexpected problems, the question is how quickly they get fixed. Oh and yes I agree it's been beaten with the ugly stick more than once

It may turn out to be a great gun to win the last war, or three or five wars ago. But combatants in Ukraine today are crying out for shotguns, or anything shotgun-like, right down to hand-made ersatz shot rounds for 5.45mm rifled barrels. One USMC Colonel is pushing for urgent shotgun training against UAVs. We're currently procuring an L85 replacement, and the thinking seems to be like-for-like. I wonder if we should be having a radical re-evaluation of that, given the targets and threats that exist now, let alone in the next conflict.

Just got back from a day at sunny Worthing Airsoft, and yes it really was a lovely sunny day! I was a little bit sour because my Aliexpress order hadn't arrived yet (and you know it's arriving tomorrow!) so I couldn't run my planned civvie loadout or my new D3CRM copy, and with my OD trousers with a rather embarrassingly placed tear in them, I actually had to wear camo today. The ever reliable m81 trousers came out, but I made sure that was the only camo I was wearing; I love playing with no camo patterns because it really makes you have to think when it comes to remaining undetected and helps keep the skills sharp. For guns, I decided to take my mk12 mod1 MWS, set up as a DMR, since I've only got 1 more bag of .48s, but loads of bags of .43s and it performed all day. I was tagging the 70m target with ease and even the 75m one with over half my shots, though I could definitely feel the difference in power from my usual 2.3J bolt actions to the 1.8J of DMR. I was watching my shots lose that power and consistency right at the edge of its effective range (which I class as 70m), where I know my bolt actions will keep that consistency for another 5 or so metres. However, the trade off is that I get much easier follow up shots. For sidearm I decided to use my hi-capa today, and that also didn't miss a beat. Anyway, first game was a three base domination. Once they had split us into our two teams, I told my friend we were about to get stomped because a LOT of the regulars congregated around each other and got put on the same team, while me and my friend saw this and made sure to go on the other side. To nobody's surprise, we got stomped in the first game and I spent most of the time dissuading sneaky bushes from trying to flank behind us. Having so much experience as a sentient bush myself, and armed with a DMR today, I made a surprisingly good counter sniper. Second game was the same three base domination, but with sides flipped and a few players moved across teams to help with the team balance. This one flowed much better and was a pretty great game. Me and my friend, both using MWS-based DMRs today, made a pretty decent pair and managed to cause some damage to the enemy team as they tried moving from one of the bases around the flank of another one. Third game was a larger game that ran until lunch where basically there were a bunch of flip cans to control (yellow team wants the yellow side up, blue team wants the blue side up) as well as a LOT of collectibles. There was a... technical difficulty though, as the marshall who had us at our base got no radio communication that the game was started, so when he called game on for us, we made it about 20m out of our base before getting lit up as the enemy team had already been let out a minute or two earlier. The marshall did apologise and owned it, so props for that; basically the radios decided to have a moment and so he didn't receive any comms from the other marshalls for a countdown or the call for the game to start. What this meant is that me and my friend basically spent the entire game on base defence, as our base was situated close to one of the only areas where guns with an MED can perform well. I managed to crawl into some ferns (and some stinging nettles that were hiding there!) and had a great line of sight onto two trees and a barricade that the enemy team just loved to use, and I managed to get a lot of great shots onto them without being detected. All in all, it was a really good morning, as I didn't play after lunch because my new purchase needed some range time (pre-ban Tanaka m24 😍). The weather was really good for airsoft today, hovering around 20 celcius and with a fairly low wind, relative to the very breezy game days we've been having. It was still somewhat windy, but it was nowhere near as bad. I know a lot of people complain when it's 20 celcius, but I used to live and play airsoft in Spain; we had to stop playing at around 2pm for siesta because it started to get close to 40 celcius, which was a bit too toasty... Furthermore, hit taking from the shots that I took seemed to be really solid. There was only one player who took a bit of persuasion, but the 2nd hit got him to put his hand up and walk back to respawn. That's the only instance of poor hit taking I saw, and it wasn't even that bad! However, I will harp on like a broken record, because it really got put into perspective today with me playing elsewhere just last week for once... The site is too overgrown and really needs some attention; the entire bottom of the site is lost, the hill connecting the top and the bottom is lost, and the top of the site now is even starting to get really bad. Playing at Allsorts Airsoft last weekend really put it into perspective. At Allsorts I found myself naturally playing more actively, getting stuck into the games a bit more, whilst still being able to find spots where my 30m MED guns could actually do some work, without it feeling overpowered. At Worthing, there's just... too much foliage. Not just from a "it blocks my shots and makes a 30m MED incredibly challenging" perspective, but also from a playing aggressively and more actively perspective. At Allsorts, I didn't go in with the mindset of "I'm going to play active today", I just went in with my normal mindset and ended up naturally playing more actively. I went into today with the same mindset and... I don't like playing more actively at Worthing because there are too many bushes and it's incredibly easy to hide and ambush people; trust me, I've been doing it for years so I appreciate the hypocrisy in me moaning about it now. If you push up, you'll probably get shot by someone sitting in a bush elsewhere, and it leads to just... not as much enjoyment. It's far too easy to hide and far too hard to actually push, which can slow games down. Hell, I managed it today in my OD shirt and a scrim net that I sometimes draped over my cap and scope, with people looking right at me and having no idea I was there. Next game day I'll have my full civvie setup, so flannel + jeans will be out in force. I will go into next game day with both in mind; I will see how much I can get away with when it comes to hiding, considering I'll be in black and white flannel, and some jeans, but I'll also try and spend some of the day playing more actively and see how it goes. Will be an effort, but science must be scienced!

They havent fully adopted it yet. Not sure if they will