FN America is showing off their candidate for the U.S. Army’s Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle. The program is intended to replace the M249 Light Machine Gun with a more modern machine gun chambered for 6.5mm Creedmoor or 6.5mm CM.
The Army wants the guns chambered in 6.5mm CM as the newer cartridge offers a greater effective range than 5.56 and 7.62 NATO with a weight in between the two other cartridges.
FN has a compelling offer for the Army with the updated MK48 since they can deliver conversion kits in addition to complete machine guns to upgrade existing firearms currently in use. “The 6.5mm is intended to be offered as an upgrade kit that will allow armorers to configure existing MK48 Mod 1 weapons to Mod 2 and 6.5 caliber,” said FN.
Other upgrades include a stock adjustable for length and cheek rise, a locking charging handle, an improved sear, a railed handguard, a better bipod and a beefier feed tray.
The 6.5mm CM MK48 is based on the MK48 Mod 2 developed for the USSOCOM requirement for a lighter, more compact machine gun with a longer range than their machine guns chambered for 5.56 NATO.
FN’s machine gun is a strong contender for the role since units trained on the MK48 family of guns will not need new training to use the guns in the improved chambering, along with armorers, and the supply and logistics are already in place.
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The Army has suggested that only select units will be moving to 6.5 CM, and other machine guns in 5.56 and 7.62 NATO will stay in service. Time will tell if this move will see wider military adoption of the 6.5mm cartridge or if it will remain in specific roles. FN is working on converting many of their 7.62 NATO guns to 6.5 Creedmoor for military and commercial sale.
The 6.5mm Creedmoor cartridge is wildly popular across the shooting industry, from target and sport shooting to hunting and self-defense. It has seen rapid adoption as a “do-all” cartridge that offers long range, good terminal ballistics, and a relatively low cost.
It’s not an extremely long range cartridge and it’s not an anti-materiel round, but it outperforms 7.62 NATO in many roles. Last year the Army chose 6.5 CM for select purposes where 7.62 NATO was deemed inadequate, but moving to magnum or larger cartridges would be impractical.
The MK 48 machine gun in 6.5 Creedmoor was debuted at this year’s 2019 Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC).
I cannot believe that the U.S. Army is actually believing all the smoke and mirrors hype about the 6.5 CM. Some General has been drinking the Kool-Aide.
I think a round like the .243 Winchester or .270 Winchester would offer the power needed for a new squad automatical rifle.