American's always overdressing for the wrong occasion.

Soldiers need a basic anti-infantry weapon that is 1st)Reliable in all conditions. 2nd)Accurate to at least 300 meters (500 if you are feeling plucky) 3rd) Light, Compact,& easy to carry. 4th) Effective 5th) large ammo capasity.

To be fair, all 4 criteria have eaqual weight, and IMO the lack any one results in a failed weapon. The current M16 fails in criteria 1,3,5.

A G11 type weapon makes a lot of sense, if it lives up to the hype. The AA12 auto shotgun is also looking like a winner. So if someone could combine them, we can to finally get a real assault rifle.

The link was mostly re-hashed recent history. I did learn something, however. The M1 Garand went through a similar fight over calibers. It was going to be chambered for .276 (with a 10 round clip) until Douglas MacArthur forced them to use the .30-06. Cool.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_10_48/ai_90529095

And guess what, the .276 Pederson is ballistically similar to the 6.5 grendel.

Yep. Sounds like it is in the same ballpark as the 6.5 and 6.8 mm rounds being talked about now as well as the Brit .280 rejected years ago in favor of the .308. (I don’t have an opinion on which is better – they all sound better than 5.56)

Back in the 1930's the Army still qualified at fairly long distances. I have to believe that the .276 M1 could hit consistently at 500 to 600 yards, albeit with less force than the 30-06.

Who knows? If Dugout Doug had accepted the .276, maybe we would still be using it in a more modern rifle. A .276 M-14 with a 25 or 30 round clip, the wood furniture replaced with synthetic material and a pistol grip? Probably a lot better than the M-16 and as good as anything we are considering for its replacement.

You just described some of the updated Mini-30 rifles on this site.

http://www.accuracysystemsinc.com/

check out the "urban brawler"

If they have another NATO compition to find the next std round we've got the spc and the grendal (any others that i'm unaware of?).
Can i surgest my own idea? Use the 6.25 round developed by us brits back in the 60's, with the cartridge you yank's developed for your SAW programme, cut down to 41mm.
Like the spc / grendal it would be small enough to fit in a 5.56 mag well, and i believe that it has great potential.

I am definately for adopting a new cartridge in the military. 6.5 Grendel or 6.8 SPC (6.8 x 43) would be an improvement over the 5.56 x 45. The barrel of any rifle the military would choose could then be shorter and have a further effective range than the 5.56 x 45.

If they choose to stay with the 5.56 I hope they dump the old 62 grain 5.56 bullets and take the new 77 grain 5.56 bullets.

The U.S. Marines have done testing with 77 grain bullets in the 5.56 x 45 and found them to be very effective out to 300 meters from twenty inch M-16 barrels.

much ado about this new rifle competition.its
to be expected,no one in the domestic firearms manufacturing sector would want to be left out
at the chance at a very fat government contract
(not to mention,i imagine,some degree of pride
at making the next u.s. forces battle rifle.it
would probably rankle their sensibilities to be
trumped by a foriegn competitor,even one with as
sterling a reputation as H@K.)but what ever they come up with,it had better be real damn good,it
must be a FIGHTING(emphasis mine)weapon,i.e.you
had better be able to butt stroke,smash,and all-
out clobber the other guy with it.must be chamb-
ered for a REAL fighting cartridge,i.e.one with
a 125-150 grain bullet able to reach the 500-600
meter mark for effective aimed fire,and that right there is the key to a successful new rifle
design.the g.i. had better be able to accuratley
aim and hit with the damn thing period,or all
the electro-optic,red dot garbage in the world
isn,t gonna matter a good god-damn.ultimately
we had better see a real fighting weapon,not
some concept,show-room floor,buck rodgers piece
of junk whose handguards melt in sustained fire
and is too short in the barrel to get the bullet
to the target to do any good when the ranges start going up.

Robinson Arms XCR in Grendel, Product improved AR15 in Grendel, AR10, FAL (in all the available chamberings), the FN SCAR family, even the FN2000 rechambered for something more impressive than that poodle shooter round.