CriticalThought
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Most of the assault rifles of the last 50 years such as HKG3,G38 & 416, AK-47/ 74 / 103, AR-16/18, M- 14/M16, Steyr Aug, Galil, SIG 550, HK416, FN FAL and FN Scar are not that much better than each other. Of course newer rifles are lighter & with less kick, one can carry more of the new 0.556 less lethal round but can one honestly say that a soldier carrying FN Scar will be victor against the enemy carrying G-3 or Galil or even the ubiquitous AK-47.
The answer is surely ‘No’ as there are too many variables involved in here. No one rifle or a specific type of ammo can be said to be superior with certainty
Let’s us examine the experience of real combat situations. During the long Vietnam war, Vietcong guerrilla equipped largely with the AK-47 (Chinese type 56) assault rifle successfully fought with US troops carrying M-14 & M-16. Same thing happened in Somalia and now happening in Afghanistan. In the Falklands, both the British as well as Argentinian infantry were using FN FAL rifle. You can’t really say that success of Pak Army in the Zarbe Azb is due to the G-3 being superior to Taliban’s Kalashnikovs.
The above long winded preamble is not meant to belittle the need for replacement of the aging G3 rifle. Every Pakistani would like their soldiers to have the best assault rifle in the world. My point is simply to stress that Hon TheDarkKnight is correct is his assertion the limited resources available to Pak Army may provide more bang for the buck if other urgently needed equipment such artillery is given priority.
Finally, whichever way one looks at it; it appears that small arms, especially the assault rifle, design reached its peak during the decades of cold war era and therefore it is not easy to choose one over the other. Besides, a new assault rifle will be in service for the next 30 to 40 years and I am glad the Pak Army experts are taking their time to make up their mind.
The most interesting question is whether PA will replace all or a significant number of G3s with another x51 calibre rifle or shift towards x39 being the mainstay.