Program Background
The Lightweight Small Arms Technologies program is the culmination of much research and information obtained by the US Army. It succeeds several other programs to develop new small arms technologies, each program of which produced results that were infeasible or insignificant. The first three (the Special Purpose Individual Weapon, the Future Rifle Program, and the Advanced Combat Rifle program) demonstrated the ballistic problems of flechette ammunition, and the ACR program also showed the inability of kinetic-energy firearms to significantly compensate for human inaccuracy (the small accuracy increase of all of the concepts tested was out-weighed by the trade-offs required). The subsequent identification of programmable air-bursting munitions as the only way to significantly increase accuracy was followed by the fourth, and most recent, cancelled program—the OICW program. The ability to detonate an explosive in the air at range provided a huge increase in accuracy, but the resultant XM29 proved too heavy to use. The separation of the XM29 into the XM25 and the XM8 provided no long-term solution to the weight problem, and the program was suspended indefinitely. Developments in lighter weapons (such as LSAT) could see a return to the concept, although the military has not recently expressed a desire for a return. The indefinite suspension of the program sounded the death of short-term advances in infantry weapon lethality, and indicated the shift to other projects.
After the failure to significantly improve firearms of the near future, the U.S. military is using the development of other infantry equipment to improve the effectiveness of the soldier. Most notable is the development of electronics and information technology to advance soldiers' awareness and communications (as with the Land Warrior program). However, this new equipment increases the weight burden on the soldier, who then has to strike a compromise between the extra equipment and mobility. Reducing the weight of infantry equipment allows for more mobile, better equipped troops. Since a soldier's weapon and ammunition are a large portion of his total burden (and available technologies exist to sharply lighten them), reducing the weight of the two is crucial to increasing the amount of advanced technology a soldier can carry. Computer technologies integrated into the weapon and its sights make a light weapon crucial, otherwise the soldier shall have difficulty carrying the weapon and its heavy sights. Other indirect improvements in soldier effectiveness include new strategies and the development of air transport. This is aimed towards creating fast, well-equipped soldiers able to be quickly deployed to counter threats. The logistics and mobility problems of heavy equipment hinder this possibility.
The LSAT program allows a vast reduction in soldiers' carrying loads, thereby allowing new and more equipment, reducing logistical strain, and increasing mobility. The combined benefits to soldier effectiveness are big enough to warrant the investment in the new lightweight technologies.
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