Another New Military Rifle Cartridge?

 This is interesting. Ammo Land reports that FN America has delivered test and evaluation samples of two all-new weapon systems--the LICC-IWS (Individual Weapon System) and LICC-AMG (Assault Machine Gun)--together with ammunition as part of a long-term development contract with the Department of Defense’s Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate (IWTSD).  It is the bit about the ammunition that caught my attention: it is what FN is calling the 6.5×43 LICC (Lightweight Intermediate Caliber Cartridge). The article indicates that "FN’s unique 6.5x43mm LICC caliber [was] developed with input from the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, IWTSD and individual operators. A family of lightweight, stainless steel cased 6.5×43 caliber ammunition was designed to reduce the carried weight of the system by 20% compared to equivalent brass cartridges, while achieving improved results in accuracy, range and performance over current fielded 5.56 ammunition, including M855A1 (5.56x45mm)." The War Zone adds in its own article on the topic: "The 6.5x43mm cartridge evolved directly from the .264 USA round, which was developed internally by the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU)" and is supposed to give better accuracy and range than the 5.56--in other words, to address the same shortcomings that gave rise to the 6.8x51mm cartridge that the Army recently adopted. Moreover, the War Zone article mentions that Canada, that helped develop the cartridge is seeking a STANAG agreement with at least one other country (but not the U.S.) as to the cartridge.  

    The War Zone article also has a bit more to say about the LICC-IWS:

FN America has developed three subvariants of the LICC-IWS with 12.5-inch, 14.5-inch, and 18-inch barrels, referred to as the Close Quarters Battle, Carbine, and Designated Marksmanship Rifle types, respectively. The company says the 14.5-inch barrelled version is 35 and a half inches overall (32 and a half inches with its stock collapsed) and weighs 7.75 pounds. This puts it in the same general size and weight class as the 5.56x45mm M4A1 carbine, which continues to be widely issued across the U.S. military and has been something of a control standard for the LICC effort. 

    This is particularly interesting because the Army just adopted a new rifle caliber for combat rifles--the  6.8×51mm Common Cartridge (.277 Fury)--and now it (or at least one of its directorates) is looking for something lighter, smaller, and less weight? I have unfavorably compared the M7 to the M14 rifle and now, just has happened with the M16, we see Special Forces looking at a lighter, more useful caliber and rifle that has the potential to quickly make the M7 obsolete. 

Related: "Army Captain Slams New XM7 Rifle As “Unfit,” Sig Sauer Says Otherwise (Updated)"--The War Zone.