Quote Originally Posted by Chris jM View Post
As a general infantry officer involved in the early stages of a sniper rifle replacement project I have been researching the sniper rifle capability requirements ...
Interesting project.

Remembering back to how important the selection and maintenance of the aim is do you have such an unclassified aim you can share?

Beyond maintaining and extending the ability for a 'one shot, one kill' result at the longest possible reach what other considerations do you have?

The big drawback is cost, both per round and barrel life.
That should be the least of your concerns if you aim to improve the effectiveness of your snipers. The cost per kill delivered by snipers is probably the cheapest in any war (all things considered).

In my opinion the .338 machine gun is exciting, as it is the first MG we have seen designed around a modern rather than a legacy round. This exact design might not be a commercial success but I would suggest that it has huge potential in the naval and air machine gun roles where we currently see GPMG/M60 weapons used, as well as being a potentially potent GPMG replacement for light and motorised infantry formations.
There should be a very good reason for a mix of calibres at platoon and company level (where a GPMG is used). Not sure I have heard one yet.