Every couple of decades the Army decides to look for a new service rifle. At the end of the 1980s, that search was called the Advanced Combat Rifle Program. Unfortunately, these programs never result in new weapons for the military but many of their concepts make it into commercial products. This Army film takes a look at the ACR.
Ah yes, memories of Benning in 1990.
Flechete rounds at over 4000 fps. Swell!
The H&K G11 was looking to be a fine weapon. It’s a pity that nobody ever adopted it.
You can blame the unification of Germany for that…mostly
The caseless ammo killed that weapon.
I would say some things that come out of those programs also become military equipment. For example, the AAI weapon in that video sported a first generation ACOG, and the Colt entry featured an early ELCAN. While the rifles never saw entry into the arsenal, the optics certainly did.
There’s that.
Not as direct a line (they increaed the caliber), the xm25 came from the OICW’s 20mm & ballistic computer.
i wonder what ever came out of the OICW program … since we are talking about acrs
I thought the OICW was broken down into the XM8 and XM25. The helmet mounted sighting system was tested in Iraq by 2ID if I remember right.
The heads up display was from Land Warrior not the OICW.
People who comment on these videos seem to like that G11…why? Any experience with it? I doubt it.
The recoil looks ridiculous for a start on the G11 then there’s reloading it which would be a fucking nightmare, unless your happy to simulate changing barrels on a .50 but with your personal weapon. Consigned to the realms of history for clearly logical reasons.
+1 AMEN!
Innovation in engineering while ignoring ergonomics.
My dad was in some of those tests. The caseless ammo wasn’t durable and it burned extremely dirty. He hated the gun for a number of reasons.
The real unsung star of this program was the Steyr ACR – downward ejecting, fully ambidextrous bullpup firing cased polymer telescopic ammunition that weighed 1/2 as much as 5.56. In 1987.
If you compare it to the rifle displayed by Textron in Sep 2016 for the LSAT program, you get a sense of just how ahead of it’s time the Steyr ACR was.
I agree. Out of all these rifles, Steyr ACR is my favourite.
AAI rifle, “The long profile of the weapon aids the shooter in the quick or point fire situations”. That M-Fer is loooong! Who comes up with this stuff?
Anybody else notice that when the narrator was talking about how the M16 became popular during the Vietnam War, the background picture was actually 82nd Abn and Ranger troops in Grenada – 20 years later?
Yea that was kinda weak. The production team couldn’t tell the difference. Come on.
Wow just just watched this and thought to myself, damn you old
ALICE kit….ahhhh the painful memories.
The metal meat hooks and alice clips of the LCE were a deliberate design add on to ensure the soldier kept good personal hygiene to prevent infection and to keep him alert during long night time movements.
The 80s and 90s represented an infatuation and curiosity with technology with policymakers going as far as saying American military technological prowess gave the United States a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) that was second to none. What we now know today is that technology alone cannot give us the fighting edge. It must be coupled with quality training, which is oftentimes quite simple and lacking in some ways in this video. Even the soldiers testing these space guns demonstrate a lack of good combat marksmanship fundamentals, to include one soldier having to think twice about releasing his bolt after loading a fresh magazine, simply because of a lack of repetition. I wish we could send a modern shooter back in time to go up against these guys with an M16A2 or CAR-15.