Looks like someone has been making progress lately in the US... I thought this thing was likely to end up in the technological scrap yard like so many military programs nowadays, so I was kind of surprised (though in a pleasant manner) to learn that it had actually come along quite well and it's getting close to completion. I'm talking about the
LSAT LMG, a weapon that is meant to complement -if not even replace- the FN Minimi/M249, while offering a perk that few firearms of this kind have managed so far:
significant weight reductions.
The LSAT is actually one of the very few firearms that can make use of caseless/lightweight ammunition: the propellant is either encased in plastic (instead of brass) or left completely naked (the manufacturer, AAI, bought several patents from Heckler&Koch, especially those concerning the caseless ammo-firing -though never put in production-
G11 rifle). Either way, a LSAT LMG + 1,000 rounds of plastic case rounds is up to
20 pounds lighter than a M249 + 1,000 rounds of brass case rounds. The LSAT is also rumored to be slightly more accurate and offers shooting performances comparable to the M249's.
To be honest, I was not sure whether the caseless ammo would ever go anywhere past the lab test stage, since the last time I checked there were severe concerns about ammunition cook-off (an argument already raised at the time when the G11 was still in development)...and when I heard about the ammunition being telescopic, I was seriously pondering whether the rounds would actually have LESS propellant than inside the brass case equivalent. The developers and testers seem quite hyped about the advantages of the LSAT (20 pounds less equals less fatigue and higher concentration for the shooter), but I have to wonder as to whether the new loading system (a rotating bolt - its operation can be seen in one of the YouTube vids above) will be as rugged and reliable as a conventional bolt system.
Looking past these issues -valid or not-, I still wonder if they could upscale the LSAT LMG to challenge the M240 on its own ground. The 240 is by all means a reliable weapon, but it's one heavy log to carry around, even if the PEO Soldier division recently managed to shear a couple pounds (
the kinda awkward-looking M240L) off the vanilla M240B. It'd be nice if the development team could, but AAI apparently prefers to focus on a
carbine/rifle version (
PDF here - could take some time to load) that could eventually supplement the M4. But I wonder if the advantages of the LSAT program could actually bring the US to consider investing in the rifle derivative and
away from the M4/16...the US are, after all, quite culturally attached to the AR15 family, and the Pentagon's latest attempt to launch a competition for a possible M4/16 successor (XM8, SCAR) ended quite anticlimactically. Even without the gas piston that improves reliability (though one could argue that a direct gas impingement system actually offers
greater precision than the GP-equipped variants, since it allows the barrel to be practically free-floating), US forces are quite satisfied with AR15s (ever noticed that most of the replacement candidates are actually evolutions of the AR15 - all except the FN SCAR?).
Heck, even the 1980s ACR program, which welcomed a LOT of technologically revolutionary candidates such as the flechette-firing Steyr ACR, the twin round-firing Colt ACR and the caseless ammo-firing H&K G11, was cancelled since the organizers didn't see any perk that was dramatic enough to warrant a departure from the AR15 dynasty.
As for a civilian firearm that will use LSAT technology? I don't think we'll see one... I think most shooters won't mind actually using brass rounds and the military will probably want to curtail the widespread use of caseless ammo.