We beat this up before while you were in transit, I guess. Don't have time now but will see if I can link to the thread later tonight. In the interim, let me give you two heresies to contemplate.

Suppressive fire is vastly overrated and is not nearly as effective as some seem to think. Accurate fire, OTOH, is effective and few doubt that.

Belt fed weapons have a place. Many believe -- and I am one of them -- that they do not have a place in the Rifle Squad. They are too fragile, they require too much maintenance, they require extra training, they add to the log burden, they are unwieldy --even with assault or otherwise short barrels (which harm accuracy and effectiveness) and they're heavy. Recall also that the Corps got through WW II and Korea with the BAR and its 20 round magazine as the Squad AR (some had the Johnson LMG with a 30 rd mag -- but very few had it. It also had problems of its own).

More later.

Stay alert.