AAI LSAT Rifle?

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vajt

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Reading some information about the AAI LSAT Rifle, it is mentioned that out of 17 designs, it was finally reduced to:

2 Polymer-cased ammunition firing variants
2 Caseless ammunition firing variants

Has anyone been able to find any drawings or pictures of these remaining variants?

-----JT-----
 
http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2006smallarms/spiegel.pdf

http://www.defensereview.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1000

http://www.americanrifleman.org/rifles_military_lsat.html

It is my understanding that the idea is to develop the rifle by scaling down from the LMG.

I am sure there are others here with more up to date info.
 
Brickmuppet,

Thanks for the links. AAI has the distinction of having participated in many Army rifle projects dating from the SPIW program from the 60s and having none of their designs ever being adopted for service. They were afterall at the cutting edge and introduced many novel concepts. I am not sure how the LSAT would stand in the face of the current Infantry Assault Rifle (IAR) competition which wants to do away with the SAW concept altogether, see

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/IAR-What-IAR-The-USMCs-SAW-Substitution-05240/
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=788806&page=5
 
amsci99 said:
Brickmuppet,

Thanks for the links. AAI has the distinction of having participated in many Army rifle projects dating from the SPIW program from the 60s and having none of their designs ever being adopted for service. They were afterall at the cutting edge and introduced many novel concepts. I am not sure how the LSAT would stand in the face of the current Infantry Assault Rifle (IAR) competition which wants to do away with the SAW concept altogether, see

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/IAR-What-IAR-The-USMCs-SAW-Substitution-05240/
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=788806&page=5
Click to expand...
The USMC is not seeking to get rid of Squad Automatic Weapons but they are looking at an M249 replacement that is more along the lines of a modern version of the BAR as opposed to a belt fed LMG. I haven't read anything that indicates that the US Army is thinking along those lines.....
 
V8Interceptor,

I stand corrected, you are right that there are no indications that the US Army is abandoning the SAW. However, I am disdained by the remarks of legendary firearms designer Leroy James Sullivan in the Defense Review article from the link. He seems unconvinced about the ability of these new ammo to achieve obturation. To my knowledge, the ammo for the HK G-11 worked well enough to be adopted for service but dropped due to the cost of unification.
 
On a related note, a Ukrainian company recently announced polymer distintegrating link belts for their PKM medium machine guns firing 7.62 x 54 mm Warsaw Pact ammo.
The US Army is already using polymer cases in their .50 caliber (12.7 mm) Browning heavy machine guns. The new .50 cal. cases have polymer bodies, but retain brass cartridge bases.
I predict that - within the next 3 years - some body is going to introduce polymer cases that incorporate part of belt links. I predict that they will mold grooves in the sides of polymer cases and the new generation disintegrating links will clip into those grooves.
 
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Not convinced on that would work as you would need to drastically rework the firing chamber to suit. Might be a bottleneck for stoppages.
 

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