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| - The American search for an Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR) began in the early 1980s with the decision to seek new rifle design for adoption in about 1995. Multi-million-dollar contracts were awarded to a number of companies to develop caseless rifles, and later, further contracts to other companies to examine non-caseless solutions. The designers were given free hand within broad limits of weight and size, the primary stipulation being that the rifle had to give 100 percent improvement in first round hit probability over current M16A1 rifle.Eventually, in 1989, four candidate weapons were tested, from Heckler & Koch of Germany, Colt of USA, AAI Corporation of the USA, and the Steyr-Mannlicher of Austria. Testing was prolonged and expensive, and at the end of it the US Army decided that while a
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| abstract
| - The American search for an Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR) began in the early 1980s with the decision to seek new rifle design for adoption in about 1995. Multi-million-dollar contracts were awarded to a number of companies to develop caseless rifles, and later, further contracts to other companies to examine non-caseless solutions. The designers were given free hand within broad limits of weight and size, the primary stipulation being that the rifle had to give 100 percent improvement in first round hit probability over current M16A1 rifle.Eventually, in 1989, four candidate weapons were tested, from Heckler & Koch of Germany, Colt of USA, AAI Corporation of the USA, and the Steyr-Mannlicher of Austria. Testing was prolonged and expensive, and at the end of it the US Army decided that while all the candidate rifles showed merit, none provided the quantum leap in performance that was desired. The program was placed on hold in 1990, and that was that. However, the various designs are worth of study, because they suggest the way that the next generation of rifles might go, as and when the armies of the world show sufficient interest.
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