link.
China claims to have entered its QTS-11 OICW into service.
The QTS-11 is of the same breed as the now cancelled OICW the US Army was pursuing, but could not get to work: it involved an air bursting 25mm grenade launcher mated to a 5.56mm assault weapon. That proved to be too heavy, by US Army standards and they went with just developing the grenade launcher as a standalone weapon. Due to some weird legal wrangling - HK wanted the US gov to grant some statements regarding international law about explosive projectiles below a certain diameter and the US gov didn't - HK refused to continue with the manufacture of the weapon. Orbital ATK was the contract holder with the US Army - having teamed with HK - and failed to deliver the weapons. The US Army then cancelled the contract last April. Orbital ATK is now in legal hell with HK to pursue another manufacturing partner to try to win back the contract.
However, in the mean time, if the Chinese have successfully pulled off the introduction of an effective OICW, the US Army Infantryman is outgunned. Big time. Really big time.
And we have a very serious problem.
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