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Every Failed M4 Replacement Attempt
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- Published on Mar 6, 2026
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Breaking down every Wasteful and yet cool M4 replacement program in the US military. Constant changing war fighting doctrine that demands increasingly insane design criteria.
And that's not all. Watch this: • Small Arms
Credits to:
Hickok45 - / @hickok45
@The_75th_Ranger_Regiment- / @the_75th_ranger_regiment
Garand Thumb - / @garandthumb
Demolition Ranch - / @demolitionranch
Military Arms Channel - / @militaryarmschannel
Forgotten Weapons - / @forgottenweapons
Nutnfancy - / @nutnfancy
Military Times - / @militarytimes
Honest Outlaw - / @honestoutlaw
MrGunsnGear - / @mrgunsngear
Brandon Herrera - / @brandonherrera
Warrior Poet Society - / @warriorpoetsociety
IV8888 - / @iv8888
BadAssOptic - / @badassoptic
Disclosure:
Sound: Epicdemic Sound
Content Creation Process
Fair Use Notice: This video is an original, transformative production with assisted AI workflow based on independent research, scripting, and structured storytelling. All third-party footage is selectively used and heavily edited with transitions, visual analysis, some sound design, and re-sequencing to add new meaning, educational value, and context under Fair Use. Human edit includes using Adobe Suite and AI assisted timestamp matching using CSV spreadsheet.
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I love how the U.S and the rest of NATO all chose 5.56x54 as a universal round in the event of a world wars so that everyone can share ammo, just for the U.S to end up choosing 6.8x51
Big brain move!!! 😂
We are still going to keep using 5.56mm everybody who's not Infantry or Scouts will continue to use the M4.
*5.56x45, but yeah
The 556 round makes you wish you got hit by the 762x51. More humane way to go, 308 Winchester
That was 45 years ago. Tech changes.
"Okay?" "Does that make sense?" "Right?"
The clanker is trying its best OK? Does that make sense? Alright?
Sounds like my professor just preaching
i actually kindve like it, reminds me of picking an old timers brain. hopefully its not AI And how he just likes to dictate his points.
probably speech to text to speech
@2nimble it's AI and so are his infographics. Look closely, lots of spelling mistakes and weird shapes hidden in the graphics
“They spent 100’s millions of dollars and had nothing to show for it”
Yup….sounds like the government
It'sthe army, the government is inefficient, but you are never willing to cut funding to the army and then complain you don't get shit by paying taxes. Remember you are paying for F-35 and XM7
R&D, especially military, is best in state hands. They just perverted the process and finances from the original working ones. There is also less benefit after sharing the results with the industry, since they long have found ways to suck consumers so dry they can pay for R&D out of pocket money.
tbf, plenty of private companies do that too. Think of how many video games get stuck in development hell for years, take tens if not a hundred million dollars, only to be cancelled (or trash to the point they functionally were cancelled). Warner Bros spent 70million to make a movie they didn't release to then get a 30million tax write off, so you know, wasting 40million. Proportionally, that's a bigger hit (40million for a private firm vs 200million for the trillion dollar DoD). Difference is government has to be open and honest about these failures; private firms can sweep the extent of it under the rug a lot better and shuffle around what all that R&D was for with creative accounting.
well this is in this case wrong tho as a portion of the OICW rifles were given to rangers in iraq and they loved it according to reports, although the 20mm grenade in airburst wouldnt always kill it did still put them out of the fight but i guess not satisfactory enough 🤷♂
Nah, brah, sounds like the military industrial complex. This is what happens when the private sector is employed by the government and paid with taxpayer funds
“ChatGPT make me a video of the M4’s replacements throughout modern history.”
wait is all the info fake
@hopelessspaghetti5310 Most of what AI does is of poor quality, so yeah, it’s mostly garbage.
@hopelessspaghetti5310 It actually got most of it right but people are so skeptical of Ai and when they don't know the history of these platforms they'd rather just assume the Ai got it wrong (it didn't)
@Ronin.97 Either way I want to support channels that actually make a video themselves. I wish AI content was marked...can sponsorblock implement this please?
@hopelessspaghetti5310well, yes and no. For instance the XM8 didn't 'die' because of politics, but because it offered marginal benefits over the M4 platform. That dust test is presented as a big deal, but if you think about 800 odd stoppages (not catastrophic) is already considered very reliable performing 7 times better is very impressive, but again marginal in the grand scheme of things.
This is the M14 all over again
I really wish people would stop citing that dust test. It was a real test, but clearly something was off with it. They could never duplicate those results. They’ve tried several times.
AI voice sounds kinds AI-y
What was that one movie called.... "The Pentagon Wars"?? Where, in a comic fashion, they covered the ridiculous Bradley procurement process. When testing the Bradley's survivability, from cannons and ATGMs, they filled the Bradly's fuel tanks with water. Water, rather than fuel, did make the vehicles more survivable lol. Just couldn't drive 'em.
@jayklink851 The point of the survivalbilty test is to SEE the spawling that happens when it gets hit, you can't do that if the tank is a burning wreck.
@EbonyPhoenixMaybe for a tank hull(Testing APDS). Not so much for 14.5/30mm, RPG and ATGMs. The people who put water into the fuel tanks were reprimanded, so I don't think that was intended to be part of the test.
The night before another test, a soldier was ordered to secretly remove all munitions from the ammo compartment, and replace it with water. The Bradly did pretty well. However, when people learned of this, they were ordered to retest. And with ammo, it went up in flames.
@jayklink851 Pentagon Wars is such a farce it's a new level of comedy. As a rule of thumb, assume anything said in that film was deliberately leaving out critical details if not outright made up. Burton was a pathological liar. He and the writers didn't even understand that an IFV isn't the same as an APC. His book turned movie is basically a bitter *air force* colonel complaining about things he doesn't understand. He made a bunch of accusations then retired early when everyone around him ignored him for being an idiot. Like all the other "reformers" they mostly talked about things they didn't understand and were good at convincing media types who know even less about military affairs that they were right.
Filling tanks with water and ammo with sand to see where things mark and spray to is good practice. If you cause cook off during testing, the results are obvious. A burnt wreck doesn't tell you much how to *prevent* a burnt wreck. No formal reprimand was given. Some Congressmen, misled by Burton's memo, "reprimanded" some army personnel during a hearing because it's good political theater. Burton's testing plans would have destroyed dozens more vehicles needlessly (costing 100million at least) and delayed the program by 1-2 years. Oh and by the by, when Bradley saw action in 1991, it shellacked the enemy and is credited with more armored vehicle kills than the Abrams. It's also proven highly effective in Ukraine and is notable more likely to survive enemy fire than other IFVs with more being "damaged" instead of "destroyed" in relative terms.
Damn the XM8 somehow being developed way earlier then the sig m7a1 looks way more impressive and futuristic
One of the criteria for it was that it needed to look "futuristic". In actuality it is just a G36 in a odd-shaped cover.
It’s just a G36 with new furniture
@typhlosion4223even so can’t deny its looks cleaner and less heavy then the xm7 like do troops really like the new xm7 it feels heavy lugging around that gun
Hk bro hk. Sexiest guns ever made. Bar none. Except maybe the 1911
@Alemikkola Yes let’s ignore all the changes the xm8 has because the fat electrician (a genius and knowledge reserve wise beyond his years as we all know) told you it was just a g36 because government bad but more importantly government was always bad even 100 years ago and we should never had a state in the history of humanity (he’s anarchists did you get it yet ? Do you get it ? Do you get it ? Do you get it ?)
Army completely ignoring what modern combat shown in ukraine is he who has more bullets wins but officers won't let something as trivial as getting soldiers killed get in the way of a payday
Exactly, if you can only carry 160 rounds at best on you with the ngsw that would be a mag in the gun and 8 additional mags on the body. I feel like our military lives in a fantasy land where they think that almost every shot taken is a hit. Meanwhile there are a whole lot of Ivan’s running around with 9 mags of 30 running light ammo and carrying 5+ grenades each who are able to dispatch rounds off quickly and for a long time. Their method is to suppress then flush out with grenades, you use fire to allow you to more safely move into position then the grenades are what does the most. If you have let’s say 100 lbs of gear on with the ngsw, every grenade carried is going to cost you a lot more resources to the point where your overall fire superiority level is severely reduced.
Both armies in the Ukraine war used unprofessional barely trained conscripts.
@StealthTacticalRyan8 20 round mags on person plus one in the rifle is 180. However you accidentally made a solution to fix the first problem. Currently the standard mag issued to soldiers is 7 30 rounders for 210 rounds. With the M7 to get close to that the Army could issue 10 20 rounders for 200 rounds. Or issue 8 25 rounders for 200 rounds.
The Army isn't worried about Russia 😂
Right? Totally incompetent!
Sig- "hold my self shooting pistol"
16:00 okay so we just gon ignore the fact that almost every battle drill uses suppression, and as many rounds downrange is better?
Yes. The Army ignores common sense if you haven't noticed from the first half of the video lol. Just look at their ACU camo they had for like 15 years
yeah but doctrine will just change. battle drills will be different now
Suppressing fire doesn't deter FPV munitions, the whole landscape of war has changed and we're in a weird transition period
I love how many people dont realize this is AI
Glad I'm not the only one noticing, how is this not flagged "AI" by youtube?
@olliebear535honestly, RUclips needs a new button near the dislike
An AI button so that users can finally put an end to this nightmare
I like it, git gud
1:30 when he says "5-5-6" it became instantly clear this is a robot voice xD
From the misspelled words in diagrams to that sentence pattern and insert phrases no actual person would use, it's obvious that something is "off". But most uninformed people won't pick up on these things.
All government weapons programs share a common theme: massive kickbacks.
And sig took that personally
Right!?
@slik560: Exactly.
Just remember that the Department of Defense failed 7 audits in a row, but was completely untouched by Elon Musk's DOGE which went around slashing and cutting the budgets of all the other govt departments.
@Intranetusa DOGE went after agencies that had criminal investigations and lawsuits against Musk’s companies, there were about 12 pending cases, all of which have now been dropped. Everything they said about DOGE was the excuse they gave so Musk could derail those investigations and gain access to digital records of Americans.
AI voices are getting hella realistic
I rather watch this than an influencer trying to sell you their cringy merch
@Grey-thoughts88 Not with how much incorrect information or misleading sumamries are in this, opposite of helpful to me
Yet they still can't pronounce things like we do when they have billions of voice samples to copy. The infamous AC130 proinced as AC one hundred and thirty by AI instead of one thirty
@olliebear535 what exactly is misinfo? or is it way too simplified
@sarminder4357not a big deal, at least its understandable, but the main point is that the US government drain your tax payment you submit on the 1040 every year and waste on this and other weapons, which piss me off
I love how the Marine Corps cut all of the red tape for their next service rifle by disguising it as a replacement for the SAW
Uncle Sam's Misguided Children and the NSWC have a long history of being the "red headed step children" of the Navy and DoD so when it comes time for money they are very good at cutting out the crap and getting to the heart of the matter. Hence their adoption of the HK-416 (M-27) with it's longer stroke piston, 16" heavier barrel, superior metallurgy, and greater accuracy and reliability. As more and more of these weapons are made by H&K, their costs go further and further down. Unlike what the video says, the costs of an M-27 is substantially less than a SIG XM-7. The Army would be better served by going to a 16" or even an 18" heavier barrel contour and using 77 gr. 5.56x45mm rounds (already in service and available) and a longer stroke piston like the AK-47, Galil, FN FAL, M-14. If they want something cheap and available, just issue M-14's with 18" barrels a(or 19" barrels that were made for them in various government ordnance centers) modified modern pistol grip type stock and call it a day. The garand type rotating bolt of the M-14 has a 90 year history going all the way back to the renowned M-1 of WWII and Korean War fame and the M-14, which when equipped with a fiberglass stock or an impregnated walnut stock was very effective in Vietnam, and has been a staple of the NSWC since the late 1950's when they needed a rifle with a lot of hitting power that was suitable to take anywhere and has had a renewed life as a designated marksman rifle in Iraq and Afghanistan.
0:43 Only at Ram Ranch
At this point, I believe every video that has this or similar looking preview - is AI (de)generated slop
The spelling errors and the incorrect statements are clearly Ai
This is a ai video???? This ai shit Is out of hand
Yeah, something was off literally in the first few seconds when they said the W in OICW stands for “Weaton”
@Jayhay9I'm shocked too. This one fooled me. Some of the narration seemed a little off but at the same time other parts were so casual and naturalistic.
According to the creator. The original video was in(russian i think? i have the memory of a goldfish. And did use ai for the voice and to change the visuals.
So nice that the government just wastes our hard earned tax money for literally no reason at all! It’s really getting harder and harder to pay these assholes my hard earned money
yep, the US also gave away a bunch in Afghanistan for free.
I don’t care as much about the money “wasted” in military R&D. At least the companies learned something. It’s the EBT scams, homelessness Ponzi scheme, and sending money to “fix” other countries problems is what I don’t want my money going to.
@whoisthis4130 "fixing" other countries is just a marketing slogan. No one wants to just help without things in return.
@MilGearExplainerAmerican voted for this with trump
@ntks6720 I like guns but I also want some major highways in the US to be fixed. Two F35 cost savings can definitely fix most of it.
12:23 and what they ended up with is a rifle that no one likes, that weighs 3x as much as the M4 that fires a round that is heavier than 5.56 made by a company that has completely disgraced itself. I’m BAFFLED at their incompetence. They should have just gone with the M8
Or just do what the USMC did and go with the hk
@b@bananathegrea8700 that wouldn’t have been viable either tbh. Don’t get me wrong, the M27 would still be better than the Spear, but the guy in the video stated that it was adopted by the Marines because they’re a smaller branch and can afford to put more money in per rifle. The Army doesn’t have that luxury because it’s like 10x bigger
EDIT: actually, scratch what I just said because it occurs to me that the M7 is just as expensive if not more so than the HK416/M27. When coupled with the inevitable higher cost of the new .277 Fury cartridge compared to 5.56, yeah. You’re 100% correct. HK would have been a better option, both economically and by viability. Plus, we’d be able to save even more money on training. Thanks to the M7’s new heavier round, the Army’s small arms tactics, which are defined by suppressive fire and accuracy-by-volume, won’t be as effective anymore because soldiers will not be able to carry as much ammo as they used to. We’re literally going to have to go back over 60 years to where more emphasis was placed on accuracy than this spray and pray style that has been ubiquitous in the Army since the M16 was adopted.
Seeing the Army bank so hard on this NGSW program with such a piss-poor Sig rifle that mandates changing all of their fucking tactics is probably one of the most autistic things I’ve ever seen in years. I just don’t understand it
The m4 isnt going anywhere
I won't argue SIG's f-ups or whether they really needed to replace the M4 instead of just going with a modern variant. But the XM7 doesn''t weigh 3x as much. The M4 weight is ~7.75lbs in the same kit with the XM7 being ~9.8 and the improved version being ~8.8. of course you lose the in-mag capacity and the overall loadout capacity for the same weight.
@kylek29fair point. I knew it was heavier, but I pulled the 3x stat out of my ass
Delta Force: Land Warrior mentioned 1:20
Video goes straight to the point without some half-baked intro. Instant like.
Most youtube videos, actual content starts around 6 mins, people bs too much at the start
'Don't wanna spend money so we're going to spend money'
Isn't this how the XM25 came to be? 1:15
Yes actually, but only half way as JUST the grenade launcher was created!
It should be noted, the M27's were only around 3k when it was a small order for the SAW replacement, when they scaled up the order the price dropped to around 1300-1400 a rifle.
That is a weird one, they were going to cost $3k IF the marines tried to sub contract it out to other companies, but HK basically said we can do $1400 BUT only we can make them for you.
@ajr@ajrey8457w is it weird? If it gets contracted out, HK makes some gains from the patents, and other companies also need to make money, so the price goes up.
By having one exclusive supplier, you assure their financial safety by ordering in bulk, the word of mouth “this rifle made by this company is used by the Marines” so it generates revenue.
The rifles end up being lower quality. To paraphrase french forces who got the HK 416 A5; it's basically the poor man's 416 compared to what the special forces got. There is no real logistic and production volume trick behind this to drop the prices, the rifle are also lower quality.
This reminds me of working for a defense company for 6 years. We spent a lot of money on Engineering and R&D, but nothing went to production.
This is such a cool insight I never expected to come across such content
M4 had 882 stoppages out of 60,000? That ain't bad. I wonder how much of the money to fund these programs actually went to these programs and not laundered out? We know the answer to that question unfortunately.
Our tax money😂
Those programs were also 20 years ago before the m4 saw its changes and upgrades the m4 now is pretty good
Stoner would be happy
That’s a 1.47% chance of a stoppage per round. That adds up
It ain’t bad? Gosh, where did you learn your rithmatic? Compared to the others it was horrible!
AK has zero stoppages... js
XM8 is pretty much the Markus Rühl of weapons
It seems to me drone warfare kinda made XM7 irrelevant even before it was used in battle. I mean cheap drones forces us into trench warfare, and for clearing trenches you want essentially a 556, need high volume of fire because you gotta blind clear most trenches. Most people get hit either with frags or they get shot in the head when they peak. No 600m shots, only ones that do that are designated marksmans and they use specialized DMR rifles that has far better accuracy than XM7(which reportedly has 3-6 moa, which is unacceptable for DMR). Or if there's a forced push into open field you just call for mortars or artillery. I dont see the point of this weapon.
Both yes and no. Yes in the sense you don't bring a gun to a drone fight. No in that even with cheap drones, the difficulty is still spotting and covering large distances on limited battery life and visibility. So considering interdiction efforts and the need for your drone to rotate like soldiers do on shifts, you still will have gaps in your field intelligence and coverage if you're only using drones. That's where your infantry come in along with their XM7s. A lot of lessons can be learnt from Ukraine, but the primary reason for XM7's upgrade would be the stopping power and anti-materiel properties. Accuracy and long-range precision used to matter when the lessons learnt were in the US trip to the sandbox, but Ukraine is effectively modern combat. You do have a point that older weapon systems are working just as fine as their newer long rifle counterparts but that's just the nature of the engagement coverage, since you only hear about the block-to-block crawl in urban zones. The XM7's update was for a different time in US warfighting history, one that other nations just looked at it and went "we prefer ye olden rifle systems".
Also no, mortars or artillery in open fields usually is a hit or miss since you don't want to waste ordnance on just infantry. You can just go with the regular small arms fire since your rounds still have stopping power. Mortars and artillery have zero-ing ranges, the need for a FO (which can technically be a drone at this point), and chew through your supply. Supply which you may want to save for bigger and more lethal targets.
The trench warfare you see is mainly only what footage captures. Because its slow as hell. There is a lot of small footprint missions run along line zero where people just get shot moving from point A-to-B, caught where cover is sparse, shot at point blank, ranged engagement from a concealed position behind a treeline etc. You can check casualty estimates online, most come from artillery and small arms fire. This trend continues along from previous wars so its still a no brainer as to why "I want to improve gun" is a modern thing. The real problem is that small arms have progressed to the point you get diminishing returns per dollar spent simply because we have reached the near pinnacle of small arms weapons science. So either breaking the laws of physics, material science or weapon system overhauls will get you the desired performance metrics that actually matter. (Ironically this is the case for a lot of weapon sciences.)
That being said, the xm7 looks dope as hell. But the US military has been spending on things far crazier and shittier than an attempted xm7 upgrade. It at least this makes sense.
The military is always trying to adapt to the last war we fought
The US is not preparing for a war in Ukraine because it does not want to end up like Ukraine.The US needs mobility and movement. Not trench warfare if they want to win.
@RK-cj4oc yeah, you chose the wrong weapon system to defend if "mobility and movement" is your argument. M4 -> M7 in every mobility relevant category.
america usualy fights farmers and children, so drones arnt really much of an issue
4:52 you say the scar performed better than the xm8, but it has 100 more stoppages than the xm8? im confused
80% of the detailed explanation has been cut out from this video, cuts went out of sync. please watch the dedicated FN SCAR video on this channel
Sick video man. No nonsense, well paced, and very informative. Good work man!
could be better!. thanks for watching
Virgin XM7 vs Chad XM8, Who wins?
M1 Garand :/
@jafarkasim8668 gooooood answer... :)
@atamahmutsarkaya1275 Piiiing piiiing piiiing
I love both
But XM8 is my true love
AK system for me lol
Oh also for the IAR I think they should try 60 rounds.
Also it looks like the marines did a big brain with the m27
40 rounds are better
quad stacks are a terrible idea
it might work in a competition shooting match but i would never want to use those surefire 60 mags in the mud and sand
@lefunnyN1Beside the fact that is heavier, it jams , you for sure cannot fit one in a normal mag pouch , and you have to count your remaining ammo too . In ukraine for example , many ukrainian soldiers use 40 rounds mags for trench clearing , but they have around 14~20+ magazines & 10+ grenades . The wheight matters , even if 10 bullets or more , it adds up a lot & fast .
Everything SOUNDS LIKE AI!!!
Yeah I agree the reading feels weird
And they must have hired a spelling challenged AI to draw up those flow charts, because twenty six of them had AT LEAST one misspelling. "pcdluced rinture" "battlations"
Yeah this is straight up AI slop. It’s sad.
AI pronunciation is much sloppier than this
...but it doesn't? Tone changes, small imperfections and etc. are definitely not AI-like
13:41 Minor correction on the poly-cased ammo: it doesn't dissipate heat better (quite the opposite), it manages heat better. Think of it this way, there are two directions the heat can go, down the barrel or not down the barrel. When the heat goes down the barrel, the expanding gasses are hotter and the bullet receives more kinetic energy to do its job. When the heat doesn't go down the barrel, it uselessly bleeds into the casing, then the chamber, then the rest of the gun. Because plastic is a poor conductor of heat, less of the heat bleeds off into the gun. But that energy still has to go somewhere, so more of it ends up going down the barrel. A convenient side effect is that since less heat is escaping through the casing and into the chamber, the chamber temperatures are lower and the chance of a cook off are lower. I remember claims during testing that they COULD NOT get a cook off with the poly cased ammo no matter how hard they tried, the chamber temperatures just weren't high enough for it to realistically happen. So pros of poly-cased ammo: more energy down the barrel, less chance of a cook off, and no more getting burned by hot brass. Cons: the higher energy down the barrel means higher pressures and therefore a shorter barrel life.
Love the delta force land warrior footage, what a throwback
It was a fun game back then
6.5x43mm Lightweight Intermediate Caliber Cartridge (LICC) that FN is doing I believe for soccom sounds way better than SIGs M250 and M5/7
Let's see how long the NGSW program lasts. It's just insane to trust a normal infantryman with that expensive scope.
Just a question, but how accurate is the 6.5x43mm round compare to other rounds? Because the XM7 6.8 accuracy is not the best.
I think its extending past just what SOCOM wants because its a program that Big Army has more control over then SOCOM, at least thats what I read from FN.
😆
The NGSW program was one of the most wasteful and incompetent programs ever conducted by the US military and even in the history of humankind. Absolutely disgraceful.
Meanwhile dod computers still takes 4 minutes to login with cac.
I dont hate the idea, but the execution is bad
It's the only system in the entire video that met the requirement to crush level 4 body armor. Everyone wants to be a critic, but no one wants to talk about actually winning against near peer threats on the future.
Imagine getting a check for 110k in your business and $40k taxed and that money goes to this.
@MilGearExplainerI can relate to those numbers. But of all the billions the G throws down the drain, there are a lot worse ones than rifles that ensure our Infantry remain the most lethal in the world for decades to come.
0:20 Dark and gritty
Dark.... And griddy.....
@michael_c1234 BEHOLD! THE ONE FREE MλN!
Darkened griddy weapon
Gnark and diddy
@K.o.l.v Diddy in the big 26
Let that sink in, does that make sense? okay, LET THAT SINK IN
the first guns you show look like weapon i found on gmod half life mod
The XM8 case it's kinda sad...
4:10 one thing I’d like to point out is that the XM-8 rifle was basically a G-36 in a plastic body kit, and some people feared that it would melt in combat
I distinctly remember that I got into an argument with some baby boomer fudd about that. I pointed out that his generation used to steam-cook chicken and vegetables inside plastic bags that were sold by McCormick Seasoning Company, and they weren't worried about melting plastic there. He didn't like that. I can't believe I remember a 15-year-old internet argument.
@3DollarFuelSurcharge There was an actual issue with the handguards melting.
@novembermike512"there were not" (they fired 500+ rounds through a normal gun and it started burning like every other gun)
@novembermike512so can an AKs wooden furniture but that’s an extreme on purpose situation only lol
The heat issues of the G36 were usually the result of the pencil barrel that was required to win the German contract. The XM8 had a standard profile and HBAR profile that helped mitigate this.
16:05 what you see in those short clips is called suppressive fire. Where you don't see the enemy. You just know the general direction. You do that mainly with the hope that the enemy will hide(take cover and therefore stop shooting) from all those bullets coming their direction(you can hear those rounds passing by) so your guys can safely move where they need to move. For that is much more ideal 30 round mags with 556.. So it depends a lot where the fighting is taking place. In jungle, forest etc. where you don't see the enemy even when he is close you want a lot of rounds. In the Urban environment I can see more powerful ammo with 20 round mags could be good choice.. But because I am from Czech Rep. I know for sure that the rifle US Army needs is Bren 3... 😉
Cz bren 2 is beating the SCAR 16
I've got a Bren 2MS and I approve this message.
They should have chosen the cz75 over the m9 for sure
@MilGearExplainer What country are you from? You're not American
Having worked in some of these dept in my time with DOD I can tell you there is alot of accuracy in this point of view however there is so much more to the story but good info overall.
This is just a 2nd grade level explainer without dragging on for too long. thank you for watching
Great video! Keep em coming please! Looking forward to following you onward if this is the standard, amazing
Glad you liked it, thanks for watching.
Saying that a 10 inch barrel hurling a 556 projectile is like throwing rocks is the dumbest thing I’ve heard in at least a week. I guess 9mm is a spitwad.
Do not take this oversimplified 4th grade level metaphor literally. Even a 22LR can kill you.
@MilGearExplainer Hell even a thrown rock can kill you 😂
Yep, MK18s have 10.3 barrels and seem to be plenty lethal.
Maybe at a certain distance?
I think he meant at range. Even the 16 inch 5.56 ran into range issues in Afghanistan.
6:55 I miss you
The ACR my goat..
“We still talk about you”😢
@ItsReconBroI've been asking Novritch to make an airsoft version for the past 3 months, even that would be enough for me.
As a Marine, I'd rather keep my M16A4 than the new XM7. The M16A4 WILL jam on you if you don't clean it. But its shortcomings are fully known and mitigated. It doesnt break or wear that fast, it just gets dirty. Whereas the .277Fury is going to chew through barrels, run out of ammo in a firefight and weighs a fuckton more. of all the programs only the oicw and ngsw are actually a step back from the M4. its truly pathetic.
Well you are pretty much right!
Hey, at least the OICW had a grenade launcher come out of it that was pretty neat, the NGSW can't really say the same.
No errors detected in OP or replies. Solid logic passing between humans.
Shoutout for the Delta Force PC footage. That game was sick.
I take it back. This was either made via AI or you're from another planet (im racist; humanity uber alles).
First word of this video was actually related to the title. No fluff. I’m impressed. The last video I watched took over 2 mins to get to the topic.
Appreciated. No ads, No BS self promotion.
I had a buddy that was involved in the XM-8. He said it had issues with the plastic (same as the first gen of the G-36). He said that after sustained fire the plastic would warp and catch fire. I've heard these same claims throughout the years, so I'm going to say he wasn't lying. It's also why it's never been retested, and why the G-36 has been phased out.
This is like “ho math” meets forgotten firearms.
Loved that channel.
@MilGearExplainer would love if you werent a fucking ai clanker
13:43
The GD/TV bid was in fact not conventional, but rather a Bullpup design.
13:47
I honestly beg to differ on SIG being the ones to take the bold design. The MXC Spear M7 arguably was the most conventional rifle out of the entire bid. It has nearly identical controls to the AR-15 platform, with the addition of a side charging handle and a lack of a forward assist.
Well lets hope guns will never seen future world wars
I don’t know if it’s an ai or a bad cut I genuinely can’t tell anymore
Ai dubbed with 70% cut out
5.56 ammo was adopted because, most combat encounters were 300 meters. The 6.8 ammo is for encounters of 600 meters even though most soldiers don't shoot that far. It also assumes every enemy soldier will be wearing body armor.
So basically, the army blueballed the weapon manufacturers and said, "lol, nevermind, I kinda like the M4."
Exactly, and left the manufacturers with nothing to do and losing a ton of money in the process. You can always count on government programs to be wasteful. Not good for us taxpayers, but the Generals and politicians love it (obscene amount of retirement money)
so this is where 20% of my 11 hour shift goes
There are jobs where you can bump that up to 80%
So many questions get answered from this video and the video never addressed them directly. Good stuff sir!
More detailed version will come later
This was a phenomenal-ass video. I learned more about the history of the military's rifle program in 17 minutes than I have in watching hours of RUclips Gun Channel's videos.
The detailed versions will be made later. this is only the simplified version!
The pentagon can't make up its mind and keeps losing money in suspicious places ,but won't spend money to save American Warfighters .
Its not the WW2 Era anymore. Not sure what the US military's actual message is these days. Seems like veterans aren't being taken care of either, people wanting to get out, and not many people wanting to join either.
Well your Bro Hagseth calls everyone fat and woke in the military, and there is that.
He call everyone fat and woke. He just called the fat and woke ones fat and woke.
Its like the light tank program. We've wasted BILLIONS on it and we had a perfectly acceptable fill-in for decades in the Cadillac-Gage (Now Textron) Stingray. And it already had a functioning production line and a service history in two countries.
@Bryce-ip3fe I call the fat and woke ones fat and woke also. The military is a joke compared to 1990.
Yet the m4 is still around
It's outdated by 20+ plus years
@youneszreikaperhaps however at this rate it will be around another 20
I don’t have any military experience but I wonder how often you actually get a clear view of your target in battle. Making a rifle that works as well as a sniper rifle seems like overkill and an insanely high cost.
You almost never have a clear shot, just an idea of where the enemy is. The M4 was perfectly serviceable and big army just fucked it.
I've always been a big fan of the SCAR 17S. Still one of my dream guns
They have problems, but it's still an iconic gun. Just because she has problems doesn't mean you stop thinking about her.
Great video! Very informative.
Having a high-volume of fire weapon like the M249 still has its place on the modern battlefield IMO. It's not all about precision and less bullets sometimes. There's situations where advancing teams of soldiers rely on their support gunner to keep heads down with suppressing fire while they move up or take a position. M240 Bravo is also a stellar weapon system along-side the M249.
Malaysian procurements department in the early 2000s probably consisted of one dude who had a lot of influence and really into exotic weapon systems on a discount
Okay?!....Okay.....Right?!....Right....Makes sense?!.....Makes sense...
I remember reading about the OICW in Popular Science when I was a kid.
0:05 yoooo i remember that gun from 007 Nightfire!! It was called the AIMS-20
Can you not use an AI voice please? It’s rough
Sure we will use some oversea Indian voice next time.
@MilGearExplainer just record yourself, dude!
I’m okay with the Indian voice!
@bananas9809he’s actually the Indian that’s why lol
@bananas9809I'm pretty sure he's using his own voice.
Yeah getting an accurate shot down field is not viable when the enemy is unloading at you. Accurate shots take time.
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
All these soldiers will be shooting as much as they can when shit gets real. They need as much ammo as possible.
People that don’t study history are doomed to repeat it.
I think there is more to the XM7 behind doors that we don't know yet. I want to see what those daily SIG employee email exchange looks like. The challenges and drama about this whole process.
1:46 it’s way better than throwing rocks 😂
Yes…. So I need to explain the CONCEPT of a JOKE to you????
@Mike-w3t3qNo, but it’s funny to think of how that comparison came about when…well….200 meters 😂😂😂. That’s why this joke was funnier than the joke in the video.
This whole video is filled with so much exaggerations, inaccuracies, and """jokes""", that's it's useless to actually learn something. But I guess this slop is enough for some.
That's the most straight forward intro I ever saw on youtube lol good job sir.
very friggin fascinating
The M7/5 won because it hasn't been tested in combat yet. With the new system, there will be changes in training. Even with a cool, computerized sight, training will have to be increased to achieve higher hit rates. The weapon still doesn't aim or fire itself. Less rounds mean you best be accurate and have less enemy than rounds. Heavier means more fatigue in the soldiers carrying it. Nobody likes the 240B until you're in contact.
Great idea, but historical lessons were ignored. Let's hope it doesn't bite some kids in the fourth point of contact.
Don't worry, it will. It's okay though, because you get infinity "immigrants" and the corpos get to see their stock price increase. It's all good man. Stop worrying.
MGS4 made me love the XM8. Such a cool gun.
Was that in the game?
I still believe the Remington ACR would have been a fantastic replacement for the M4. It had all the features of the M4 plus so many more. Better ergonomics, better accuracy. Toolless barrel and caliber change. Full length top rail for mounting optics and LAMs (something we realize now is super important). Lighter weight and better reliability. The only reason it failed was because remington was struggling financially. It is still an fantastic firearm over 25 years later and it is a damn shame it never got the legacy it deserved.
honestly such an interesting video I was not expecting that when i started it up
When bro said "does that make sense" I deadass thought I was in like a zoom class or something
It was a lecture type of conversion dubbed into English with up to 80% cut out. Not AI
On top of the impracticality of of the OICW, I think there was also some question as to the legality of air-burst micro-grenades, which were technically classifiable as "exploading bullets" (due to size/weight). Think the matter of "direct" versus "indirect" fire was relevant.
Also, while the XM8 "did well" in its initial trials, theses were criticized for not being representative of field conditions. The Army was known to rig "trials" in this era (see ACU versus Multicam).
The XM8's largely composite (plastic) design did not fare well in heat, and, if I recall correctly, it's ambi charging handle was somewhat fragile; plus, the scope was less than ideal. The rifle would literally melt itself during prolonged engagements, and it it jammed more frequently than the M4 in the field. The XM8 (or its variant) _was_ deployed in small numbers by German forces, but it performed far worse in the desert than the M4 (which was already in the process of receiving its own retrofits due to harsh environmental conditions).
It may violate Geneva convention rules
@MilGearExplainer That was the biggest problem with the OICW - the 20mm grenade was a walking (flying?) war crime...
@CaptainSeamus yes based on what I have researched, it has something to do with the Geneva convention rules, but today you can lase a target from 28000ft and drop a 2000 lb JDAM, totally legal.
Meanwhile South Korea adopted the OICW but retired it a few years later due to it being inaccurate farther out with its 9 inch barrel and would jam in the desert. Then there’s China with their own OICW and its fate is unknown.
@andsoiderparound9909 OICW to anyone gen Z is just a strange concept. Even video games don't feature them besides Delta Force in 1998
It sounds like a worthwhile improvement, but actually aiming and hitting shots under pressure is very difficult, regardless of the platform you're using. Soldiers will wish they had the increased ammo. It also throws of NATO standardization out the window.
I don't believe that average infantry is going to be able to hit anything beyond 300 meters. A new scope isn't going to change that. They would be better off investing in drones.
Yes drones are the way to go for targets that far away in some awkward positions, why expose yourself just to take a shot
They were doing it in Afghanistan with worse weapons and scopes they'll be fine. The scope is the one piece that's getting almost unanimous praise from troops who've used the weapon.
8:50 literally every time I try to do something at work
This type of process is used in many government improvement programs. I maintained a piece of equipment in the late 90's developed and implemented in the early 80's. They had attempted to replace that aging equipment three times with three different platforms, each less efficient than the last. That piece of equipment that I maintained had a 96% up time and the closest replacement was 73%. That's not complicated at all, using four different systems for the same thing... at least they canceled those weapon systems instead of attempting to partially adopt all of them. Can you imagine what the armory would look like with that mess? The M4 was never a good weapon, though it was better than the M16A2 I was trained and issued when I was in. Those had a tendency to eject every round in the magazine if they weren't maintained properly. It turned it into a single shot that threw all of your ammo on the ground 10-15 feet away. I can't remember if it was a problem with the feed lips or the ejection system.
The same for ICBMs they are currently trying to replace.
I remember reading that the M4's used in testing against the XM8 were old worn out M4s vs brand new XM8s.
This video got a lot of things wrong. It's over simplified and missing context on why the programs actually failed. Most of the weapons offered weren't that much better than the m4. And SF didn't actually like the Scar all that much. The Scar L was a shit rifle and the Scar H was mostly used as a DMR instead of a heavy assault rifle that it was designed to be.
If we can make it 70 mins long video we would include that, but telling the entire story is generally a big no no in video production for a short video
@MilGearExplainer That is a very slimy way of saying that you are too lazy to actually make an objective, fact-based video. You gloss over a tremendous amount of stuff here.
@crow9149agreed, most of his points end with "dude trust me." His armor penetration claims on the M7 are also misinformation, as we all should know by now that level 4 requires tungsten or equivalent to penetrate.
@GD-lw9yv Look up forgotten weapons on youtube, specifically the video 6.5x25mm cbj. He'll show you how a teeny tiny penetrator can pierce steel that even 7.62nato cant. With the 7.62nato hitting a lot lot lot harder, ft/lbs wise.
is it just me or the diagrams dont make sense half the time? spelling is off as well lol
02:49 why do the captions have more flair than the speaker? This sounds like AI slop.
Very interesting material, great to watch and listen. Gratz and thanks :)
Who else thinks the Spear won’t last 5 years. I was issued an m27 and I loved it. Semper fi
Yeah, despite all the hype schemes (specialty casings, massively over-pressured rounds, calling it "Spear", promising more stopping power at further ranges, etc) the thing is effectively just a worse SCAR-H at this point.
If you NEED stopping power at range, that's where you call out to the guy who's carrying a SCAR.
If you need suppressing power, you get the guy with the M249 or have multiple guys with M27's peppering the enemy location.
If you need an all-rounder squad gun for most troops... you ALREADY have the M27!
A few guys filling specialty roles (SCAR and M249), and the rest filling the versatility roles (M27) is how you get shit done.
If you REALLY have to, just handing out M27's to everyone will work in a pinch too.
But the XM7 is just an over-promised car salesman pitch not worth bothering with (apparently the leadership for the US Armed Forces branches didn't learn their lesson with the M247 Sergeant York).
Hell, we got a WHOLE movie dedicated to this exact concept with Stripes (1981).
We spent so much money to make a new gun...
And instead, they spent many times that amount of money to use the EXACT.
SAME.
GUN.
Chambered in a new round.
Revolutionary idea that's never been done right here, guys!
I thought the 416 had issues with cracking receivers?
Also the scar beat all optics to death and even threw iron sighs zero off when using 762nato
Good mounts will solve the problem on the 17s.
How did the scar perform better if it had double the stoppages of the XM8
This is my first video for 2026. Cheers for the provided learning material and well researched and presented information.
Ai slop
comment slop
Sorry, XM 7 is not as good as your representing. It has major flaws with the barrels and silencers melting under extended firing rates. With less ammo limits your suppression capability as well. Most military engagement are within 300 meters. And then you’re talking about around that is at least three times more expensive also none of your allies carry the ammunition so how would you resupply anywhere else in the world? With buying one XM seven you can buy about 3.5 of the existing and m4A1. In my opinion the Remington would’ve been the system to choose since it has the most customizable features. The last thing I would like to point out is that it technology has come along way. Just buying new improved ammo will increase the performance of the existing weapon.
The M7 is trash and will get soldiers killed. Marines had it right with the M27 and Socom had it right with the URGI
Feels bulky. And that scope will take some training.
lol
Interesting video
Glad you think so!
Yep they are back to the M1 Grand
I was like, so basically and automatic M1 🤣😂😭