Fogotten Weapons hosts Larry Vickers as he discusses the XM-8.
Tags: Forgotten Weapons, Larry Vickers
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Very cool to see. Can’t wait for the Vickers video on this rifle. Like Larry says, we owe a lot of the innovation that’s happened in the last 18-20 years to the XM-8. Glad it was never adopted though, can’t imagine trying to overcome some of those faults in the middle of GWOT.
So cool to have the story behind the development… Larry is such a wealth of knowledge… very cool!
Very interesting – was that the same Gen. Moran that brought us the UCP fiasco?
Really good to see Larry talking about this rifle program. I appreciated his mention of Jim as well. Despite not getting through the various trials, Larry pointed out very well, the demise of the project was politics. We continue to see this play out in procurement programs to this day… The ridiculously high reliability rate the XM8 had is very impressive. As Larry stated, there were remedies in the works for some of the issues that came about during the development… would it have been an overall game changer in the end? who knows, but this program definitely sparked some development in the small arms world…
Thanks SSD for posting this here.
“definitely sparked some development in the small arms world…”
Exactly, PCAP was basically what led to KeyMod…
Don’t worry, the M4A1 is going to be replaced before long. Within 10 years it’ll be gone.
I was hearing that shit in 1982, when I first enlisted into the Army. Much like fusion energy, or Brazil as a superpower…? It’s always, always “…ten years away…”.
I’m startin’ to lose the faith, man…
Honestly, I’d lay long money on the M16/M4 family being around in some capacity when my entirely theoretical grandchildren would be due to enlist, and probably still on issue when they would have retired…
Only lame Dudes repeat the Fusion Energy joke, and if, you need to claim 20years. Nobody ever estimated it would be available in a 10year time frame. If you are into that Technologie you would know that all of our progonoses have been technicl precise and that until now every milestone that popped up got taken. It is just a matter of scale, money and time until some commercial interesting unit will produce some energy output, not of technology (material science could develope a bit mire, but apart of this…) 😛
I was one of the lucky guys who got to test fire/eval this weapon with 3rd ID in 2004. I believe Larry was there on the range at FT Stewart as part of the HK team. This video brings back some memories.
I am disagreeing with Jerry:
The whole modulary thing started with the G36: Different Buttstocks, different Optic Mounts and Optics, different Barrel Lengths, different handguard versions even with Bipods, different Magazine Wells for STANAG or Propetery HK Mags, Options as LMG with Heavy Barrels, Options as LMG for Vehicles, the Ambi Control, integrated AR Stile Carry Handle, Bolt Catch and Release in the Trigger Guard, Magazine Release with Primary and Secondary Hand, so on … . The XM8 was just a bit upgraded version of that but with no major difference in Design in mind.
So, actually, the german Bundeswehr without “knowing” it started the whole modulary small gun era by the specifications they demanded:(German Soldier Urban myth I believe in and repeat) The Idea of producing a cold-war era gun that can be easily, quick and cheaply manufacted (plastic molding), even in different facilitys which are not specialized for small arms manufacting, for the case of an attack. Having used the G36 I can say the Optic Offset is good for helmet cheek welds, and the ballistics can be still adjusted good to 25m/200m zero for the RD. Small (shitty) Spotting scope with 3.75x “for Distance shots” even helped spotting stuff without carrying extra weight, or swapping the item in the hand. Only issue I see compared to the “holy AR grail” is the bulkiness: A C-clamp is quite impossible, so the follow up shots can not be as quick. Aswell as the slim Profil/Design is great for close quarter “impressions”: If it is really better I can not tell, I bet in Ship-Boarding Scenarios even the slimer profile of the AR does not do any better, so it would be more about overall lenght. Maybe small benefits to the folding stock, because you could fire the gun folded… But this is drifting a little bit, overall it´s right, the Bulkiness of G36, ACR or ARX160 are not acceptable at all.
Ps.: State of the Art Trigger Unit: User maintainable and to big parts out of plasti aswell! Just a few metal parts. You can´t see it, but that is a Keystone to the HK G36
Sorry for the second post scriptum: You could even deactivate the last round bolt open function in the trigger unit (BY THE USER, FROM THE OUTSIDE) so in dirty envoirements the weapon does not clock….