If I remember correctly one of the military's arguments was improved widespread armor amongst our adversaries required a new high performance cartridge.
When I first read the reports, my first thought was the answer to defeat armor is put the round where there is not armor. In other words be able to make small Target area hits to the Head and femoral artery areas reliably.
Looking at the recoil of the new high pressure 6.8 cartridge does bring into question the viability of the round if it is a solution to better and more widespread armor. Frankly that is probably a arms race that you cannot win. You're getting a rifle with less ammo in the loadout, higher recoil and thus more difficulty in accurately placing shots. While your adversary only needs to make their armor more resistant. I would argue that the armor side is faster and easier to address then Small arms development, production, and distribution.
Personally when I first read the reports, my thought was universal adoption of LVPOs, and possibly some gwizz electronically augmented optics. If the probability of a small Target area hit to the Head from your average infantryman became much greater you defeat the enemies armor advantage.
When I first read the reports, my first thought was the answer to defeat armor is put the round where there is not armor. In other words be able to make small Target area hits to the Head and femoral artery areas reliably.
Looking at the recoil of the new high pressure 6.8 cartridge does bring into question the viability of the round if it is a solution to better and more widespread armor. Frankly that is probably a arms race that you cannot win. You're getting a rifle with less ammo in the loadout, higher recoil and thus more difficulty in accurately placing shots. While your adversary only needs to make their armor more resistant. I would argue that the armor side is faster and easier to address then Small arms development, production, and distribution.
Personally when I first read the reports, my thought was universal adoption of LVPOs, and possibly some gwizz electronically augmented optics. If the probability of a small Target area hit to the Head from your average infantryman became much greater you defeat the enemies armor advantage.