Definitely time for the 5.56 to go bye-bye.  

 

When a WIA was valued more than a KIA due to the requirement for the wounded to be evacuated, cared for, etc, a 5.56 made sense.  Now the type of combat is dominated by irregular forces, some of whom are happy to die so they can get to their heavenly virgin-exterminating.  Our troopers need them to be dead or down hard the first time.

 

MOUT also demands a round with either greater terminal effects at range or better penetration.

 

Just pick the 6.5mm already.  It's big enough to replace the 7.62 eventually, lighter weight and lighter recoil, and suitable for sharp-shooting to 800 meters and hard-hitting enough for an urban carbine.

 

I'm really just saying this because I want to see a 3 or 4 barrel minigun light enough for a small UAV yet with enough oomph and ROF to be effective....

 

Just get off the pot and adopt the israeli T-21 chambered in 6.5mm and adopt a SAW and M240 also chambered in 6.5. It's an excellent compromise round. Lets face it the 5.56 round has always been marginal in lethality and upping it to a 65 gr bullet from 55 just has made it marginal rather han useless. Humans are Big Game...nobody with any sense at all will call a 223 Remington an Ideal Big Game cartridge...its a varmit round. the M-16 M-4 action is crappy as well...way too finicky for a battle rifle. The Tavor T-21 also uses an integral factory zeroed red dot sight...much better all the way around.

For the cost of one Navy Destroyer the entire US Military can be converted to a much better weapon and better all around cartridge.