Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Wiser
This begs the question: when did examples of the AK-47 first turn up in the West? One or two smuggled out from Hungary in '56, perhaps? Or from Southeast Asia (i.e. 1965)?
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I am thinking - were no borderguard unist equipped with this from the first run or second production run of the AK? Up norh in my country the border runs common for a lot of miles. Both countries maintain a high level of patrolling activity and observation posts. Pictures and films are routinely taken. I would think the AK was known from photos from the early 1950s. As fro the first examples - that guy jumping the Berlin wall in NVA uniform - has he not got an AK? When was that anyways?
The US did what they had to do with the 30-06 and later the .308. I believe ballistics entered into the discussion , but not as the only deciding factor. The US had a massive military industrial complex pushing to have it their way- and quite frankly get paid for winning two word wars ( at least much of it regarding western Europe).
Coventional wisdom from 50 years of warfare 1900 - 1953 was that the 30-06 had worked well and that riflemen really needed the range to win.
The US logistics people were tasked with planning the defense of western Europe with a heap of memberstates in an alliance with little coherence. Everybody had their own solutions and everybody had their own economical interests in getting the contract for supplying arms and ammo to NATO.
In hindsight other calibers may have been ballisticly better suited to changing doctrines and ways of war post Korea. But the .308 could still cover these uses and it had the benefit of playing alongside military convention, economical /political interest and logistical capacity issues. Europe was not wealthy in the 1950s- 1960s.
We (Norway) used the .308 up until around 2006-2008. Were are now using the 5,56 HK416 and exchanging or MG-3s for minimis this year. I have to say the .308 was suited well to our use. It is a round for longer distances and although the 5,56 will give nasty wounds and all that the .308 will take your arm of. I know people say that thats like using a battle axe when all you need to make them bleed is a small sword - maybe so. .308 offers better range, delivers more punch. It has disadvantages sure - for one 1000 rounds weigh app. 75 lbs / 35 kgs. In the GPMG role I am not sure about the 5,56 - I guess my mind is stuck in the way I ws trained in the 1990s. We engaged targets out to around 1 000 meters using no optical sights - just 8x40 binos and every 3 or 5 rounds a tracer. I guess the brass has thought of this and the 5,56 lmgs will be anble to do the same.
all in all - just my take on it.