Quote:
Originally Posted by DonVoigt
Seems this may be one of Robert McNamara"s "unknowable knowns".  |
Speaking of Bob McNamara, and the unknowable, a story.
Back at the end of the 1950s, beginning of the 1960s, NATO signatories had a tiff concerning a NATO "standard rifle and cartridge." The US wanted a main battle rifle (the M-14) and a full power rifle cartridge (the 7.62x51). The rest of NATO wanted an assault rifle and a to-be-named assault rifle cartridge. The English were hot for a FN SLR chambered for a .276 intermediate power cartridge.
To bring the tiff to an end the English said they would agree to the 7.62x51 cartridge as the NATO standard rifle cartridge, if the US would agree to adopt the FN SLR as the standard NATO rifle.
The US agreed.
Just after England bought a crap load of FN SLR rifles chambered for the 7.62x51 and tooled up to produce 7.62x51 ammunition, Bob McNamara announced the US was adopting the M-16 rifle and the 5.56x45 mm cartridge.
Parts of the English military arms selection group were frostily polite to their US counterparts for several years.
Welcome to NATO :-)