The Union of British North America wrote:Crookfur wrote:Nope.
Like all the serious FAL users you would have switched to a lighter, cheaper and more accurate rotary bolt system in the 80s/90s (most likely something based on the AR-18).
Even with .280 being adopted in a FAL you would still have likely found the ammo to have been not much of an improvement over 7.62x51mm and have thus have embraced the SCHV concept. Now wither you would have used 5.56mm or something more tea flavoured like 4.85x49mm is up to you.
I wish we can like things in the Forum, but they have yet to establish that.
Ok, I'll consider doing something like an AR-18. I've entertained that previously with my nation's service rifle but went with a FAL-based weapon due to pictures that have that weapon as opposed to something based more on an AR-18, but yes a lot of countries adopted the rotary bolt system with their rifles, like Britain, Singapore, Japan and Germany. I was partial to weapons looking like the SR-80 or the SR-88. But why not a cartridge in the 6 mm range?
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you in this.
If you had adopted .280 or any of the compromise versions in the 50s you would still have it around just as we still have 7.62x51mm and x54mmR ie for machine guns and longer ranged rifles. By the late 70s interest in some kind of 6mm is cartridge pretty much died especially once the germans published the results of thier small calibre experiments which even the russians seem to have paid attention to.
The concept of a 6.x mm "optimum intermediate" doesn't really rear its head again until the aftermath of the battle of Mogadishu and folks start looking for new ideas and paying attention to certain authors/ammunition experts (like a certain Anthony Williams). Of course most of the development occurs on the basis of will it fit through an AR15 lower which does limit things and the militaries largely ignore it because they are playing with grenade launcher concepts and relegating the rifle to a secondary weapon (ie the OICW). The current trend is that a change to an 6.x mm intermediate is only going to come when a larger change in ammunition technology also arrives which seems to be the goal of the current US trials.
Edit: this is not to say that a 6mm would be totally impossible. Had you gotten a new round together and into service by the early 70s then there is every chance you might still be using it.