Weapon Name- LSAT- Caseless Machine gun
Round Type- 6.5mm Grendel- Caseless, 7.62mm x 51mm NATO
Over-all length- 35.5-38.5 inches, 30 inches
Barrel length- 20 inches
Weight- 10 lb, 12.5 lb
Rate of Fire- 625 RPM
Feed Mechanism- Belt Fed
Round Capacity- 100+
Effective Range- 600 meters
Range- 1000 meters
Accuracy- 1.3 MOA
Accessories- Picatinny Rails, Thermal Scope, Laser
Quick switch firing mechanism- Extra Trigger
Scope/Sights- Picatinny Rails, Thermal Scope
Muzzle Velocity- 820 m/s, 7.8 grams - 785 m/s, 11.3 grams
Firing System- Long stroke gas piston
Miscellaneous/electronic information- The weapon is essentially a LSAT light machine gun chambered in either 7.62mm x 51mm NATO or 6.5mm Grendel.
Basic Information
The weapon is essentially a LSAT light machine gun chambered in either 7.62mm x 51mm NATO or 6.5mm Grendel. The LMG provides a major reduction in weight over legacy weapons, as well as improvements in other areas, such as controllability and reliability. As the caseless variant of the weapon, the weapon can utilize cartridges which do not even possess a case, which makes them significantly lighter than traditional bullets. The 5.56mm for instance is approximately 12.3 grams with a brass casing, but only 6.15 grams in the caseless form, which reduces the cartridge's weight by nearly half. Decreasing the weight of the ammo increases the raw volume of ammunition that can be carried, thus allowing for double the ammunition to be carried with this type of ammunition. Compared to the M249, nearly 25 pounds can be shaved off from the carry load to carry an identical amount of ammunition. Furthermore, the firearm itself was found to possess identical reliability and durability as the M249, with substantially reduced recoil. When firing, gunners felt virtually no recoil from the LSAT LMG, in large part due to it's recoil reducing design, and the lack of a need to eject a case, with both reduces strain of the user and the firearm. This allows for practical sustained, suppressive fire from a weapon barely heavier than a standard assault rifle, and of approximately the same size, as well.
The LMG design is a traditionally laid-out machine-gun. It has several features conducive to its use as a light machine gun, such as a quick-change barrel, a vented fore-grip, a belt feeding mechanism, provisions for the use of an ammunition pouch, and a rate of fire of approximately 600 RPM. Other features include its light weight, an ammunition counter, and a highly stiff and heat resistant barrel achieved with the use of fluting and specialized alloys. When firing, the weapon's chamber swings around a longitudinal pivot; it swings from horizontally parallel with the pivot (the firing position) to vertically parallel (the feed position), and back again. A long-stroke gas-piston is used to operate this action. A round is fed into the chamber at the feed position using a rammer, and the new round also serves to push a spent or dud round out of the far end of the chamber. Such rounds are pushed forward, parallel to the barrel, and they slide into a separate mechanism that ejects them out of one side of the gun. The advantages of this whole action include its simplicity, its isolation of the chamber from barrel heat, and its positive control of round movement from extraction to ejection. In the caseless firing version of the weapon, another mechanism is introduced to seal the chamber during firing, accounting for the slightly increased weight of the caseless version.
The weapon uses a quick detachable polygonal cobalt chrome "flow formed" 5 groove right hand turn barrel; the barrel is made of an alloy that contains more than 50 percent cobalt. The barrel is roughly 13% heavier than standard steel barrels, but is more erosion and corrosion-resistant and is designed to retain high strength during long-term exposure to high temperatures. Cobalt alloys are frequently used in the aerospace industry, such as the hot-gas section of turbine engines. A proof of concept M240 7.62mm x 51mm NATO barrel, in practice, had 24,000 rounds test-fired through it, causing it to reach temperatures of 1,100 degrees, without failure. A steel barrel would have failed under such treatment. The barrel itself, combined with polygonal rifling, is extremely durable, and has a minimum 20,000 round barrel life, although it is possible to extend this or get use out of the rifle after the minimum is reached.
The system is significantly more reliable than the direct impingement system. The firing system is based off of the Ak-47, which uses a long stroke piston system, similar to that in the M1 Garand, Ak-47, BAR, or M14. In July 2007, the US Army announced a limited competition between the M4 carbine, FN SCAR, HK416, XCR, and the previously-shelved HK XM8. Ten examples of each of the four competitors were involved. Each weapon fired 60,000 rounds in an "extreme dust environment." The purpose of the shoot-off was for assessing future needs, not to select a replacement for the M4. The XM8 scored the best, with only 127 stoppages in 60,000 total rounds, the FN SCAR Light had 226 stoppages, while the HK416 had 233 stoppages. The M4 carbine scored "significantly worse" than the rest of the field with 882 stoppages. However, with the HK416, 117 of the 233 malfunctions were from just one of the 10 weapons. In comparison to this, the Ak-47 jams only approximately once per every 1000 rounds, in all environmental conditions, under rapid, sustained fire, without needing to be cleaned often, even with corrosive ammo, compared to the M16 under ideal conditions. This makes the Tavor's operating system far more rugged and reliable than the M16, as well as durable, which allows it to outlast the M16, and be used in a greater range of demanding environments (such as the jungle, arctic, or desert). Fine sands or even water can greatly impact the reliability of direct impingement systems, and it's larger mass and simpler design over short stroke gas pistons gives it a higher degree of reliability than them, despite their similarly increased improvements over Direct impingement systems.
The 7.62mm x 51mm NATO round is approximately 14.1 grams, and the 6.5mm Grendel is approximately 10 grams per round. The belt fed mechanism and box holding the rounds adds approximately 10% of the weight of the cartridge to it. This means that a 100 round box of 7.62mm x 51mm NATO caseless, is 1.575 kilograms (3.85 lb), and a 100 round box of 6.5mm grendel is 1.1 kilograms (2.42 lb); proportionally, the belt fed weapon's possess the same weight. This is less than the weight of comparative magazines (25% increase in weight), and significantly less than something like drum magazines, which are often double the weight of the ammunition used, and far less reliable. The weapon has an adjustable, limitless round level, as a belt of the weapon can be adjusted by adding the clips together (so, two 50 round belts could be made in to a 100 round belt, or three 50 into 150 etc., or 125 if done correctly). While the rate of fire of the weapon is approximately 625 RPM, realistic, sustained rates of fire are much lower. Like the M249, it has a maximum rate of fire of approximately 200 RPM, but a sustained rate of fire of 100 RPM. Comparatively, the M16 only has a sustained rate of fire of approximately 15 rounds, while the HK416 has a sustained rate of fire of about 36 rounds per minute, which allows the weapon to keep a sustained rate of suppressive fire far greater than most assault rifles.
The weapon makes extensive use of high strength polymers, which protect the weapon both from corrosion and heat. Based on magpul polymers, the materials strength is far beyond that of ordinary plastics. The weapon is inherently designed to use a number of accessories, most important a hydraulic recoil buffer in the stock, and a muzzlebreak. The hydraulic recoil buffer is similar to that of an M249, which reduces felt recoil and spreads out the recoil of the weapon over time, making it more controllable under rapid fire (this mechanism hinges at an angle down into the stock. In addition, it uses a surefire muzzlebreak, which reduces the recoil of the weapon by diverting the expanding gases at the muzzle rearword (and slightly up), which counteracts the recoil of the backwards impulse of the weapon, and in addition helps compensates for muzzle rise. This makes the weapon more controllable under rapid fire, as well as more comfortable to fire, and reduces the felt recoil by nearly 40%. Combined with the hydraulic recoil buffer, the weapon has approximately 60% less felt recoil, and is much more smooth and easier to handle, with nearly all the recoil going straight back into the user's shoulder, keeping the weapon on the target, thus increasing the accuracy. The weapon also possesses 3 inches of adjustibility, based on the M4 style stock, which helps when wearing armor or thick clothing, and allows different users to adjust the weapon for their liking. The weapon is 38.5 inches long with the stock fully extended, and 35.5 inches long with it collapsed. The weapon can be reduced a further 30 inches long with it folded, but loses the effect of the hydraulic recoil buffer.
