New Weapons Being Developed for Infantry.

• Author: Ezell, Virginia Hart
• Position: NDIA Small Arms Symposium - Brief Article

The infantry--with its weaponry--rules. That seemed to be the message coming from the speakers at the annual NDIA Small Arms Symposium, held in Indianapolis, in August. The Army, with its focus on the new Interim Brigade Combat Team, is bringing renewed attention to the foot soldier and his equipment. A major theme at the conference was the challenge facing industry and military leaders tasked with finding the equipment for the future objective force infantryman.

Based on lessons learned from more than a decade of peacekeeping missions--often less than peaceful--the infantry force envisioned for the future is intended to be a single lethal force. According to infantry combat developers from Fort Benning, Ga., future commanders will send one infantry force to the battlefield, rather than choose between light or heavy forces.

Planners expect high-tempo, limited-duration combat. Enemy forces likely will choose asymmetric combat methods. The goal is to develop an objective infantry force that can meet a wide range of conflict, from humanitarian missions to full-scale war. That force--the Brigade Combat Team (BCT)--is expected to be fully operational in 2025.

The BCT combines light infantry with the tactical mobility of the mechanized force. The BCT, in various iterations, ultimately will be the infantry force structure of the Army's objective force.

Experiences in Kosovo appear to be driving the early stages of development in designing the BCT.

Firepower will include more mortars, more Javelins and more weapons of interest to the small arms world.

Army planners envision a sniper squad in every battalion, and a designated marksman in every squad. In addition to the increased number of precision rifles, the infantryman of the future will replace the M16 assault rifle with the Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW).

Under development since the mid-1990s, the OICW is intended strictly for infantry soldiers. Facing what appears to the OICW designers from Alliant Techsystems as a general misunderstanding fed by a constant onslaught of misinformation, company representatives were quick to point out that the system remains in the early stages of development (related story, p. 26).

Compared to the M16 legacy weapons, the OICW is heavy and bulky. Alliant Tech-systems engineers point out that the current comparisons to the legacy M16 assault rifle neglect to account for the various attachments needed to enhance the older weapon's performance. Even with...