Sapper,
I hope you�re right. I remember seeing a memo around that time that delayed the project but didn�t kill it. I think since then additional funding has been approved by congress, which makes me think the project is still quite alive. I have some notes on it at home�I�ll double check. GOD, I hope you�re right.
IIRC, the thought was to press on 100% with the XM8 which was to eventually become the 5.56 part of the OICW, but last I heard, the XM8 project wasn�t going too well either.
That whole project was (is?) half baked. It�s like someone saw Aliens and said, �our troops should have one of those� (M41A pulse rifle). I�ll agree, it was perhaps the coolest weapon ever dreamed up in Hollywood, but�Come on people!!
It shouldn�t have taken any brain power to realize that a 25mm rifle grenade would be little more than an M80 with thumb tacks attached. Doesn�t anyone remember the little �mini� baseball grenades they tried in Vietnam�they didn�t work and they were twice the size of the 25mm rifle grenade.
We cant keep up with the cost on M16�s, how the heck do they expect to afford something like the OICW? Once again, our tax dollars hard at work.
