6.8x43mm SPC Cartridge for Urban Warfare CQB and
Short-to-Medium-Range Sniping
Anybody who's been keeping abreast of small arms and ammo
develpments in the USSOCOM arena should already be aware fo the
6.8x43mm SPC a.k.a. "6.8mm Remington SPC (Special Purpose
Cartridge)" cartridge concept. The 6.8x43mm Special Purpose
Cartridge (SPC) was conceived and designed with the help of members
of the U.S. Army 5th Special Forces Group as a much better answer
for urban warfare and CQB (Close Quarters Battle) than the 62gr
5.56x45mm NATO round, and a much better short and intermediate
distance sniping round than the 77 gr. 5.56mm round that's been
utilized of late in the SPR (Special Purpose Rifle) by U.S.
Spec-Ops personnel in the Middle East.
The 6.8x43mm SPC was designed for the M16 rifle/M4 Carbine (or
SOPMOD CQB Subcarbine) weapons platform. All an operator needs to
do in order to convert his M4 Carbine or SOPMOD CQB subcarbine
is...
switch out his 5.56mm upper receiver and replace it with the
6.8x43mm SPC upper. It's interesting that Barrett Rifles is
currently manufacturing 6.8x43mm upper receivers for the military
(specifically for SOCOM end users). As far as DefRev is aware, this
is Barrett's first foray into the AR-15/M16 platform weapons
arena.
According to one of DefRev's sources (as of about 8 months
ago--that's right, we sat on the info), the 6.8x43mm enjoys roughly
the same trajectory as 7.62x51mm out to 600 yards. The 6.8x43mm
round weighs 115gr. and has a velocity of 2750 to 2850 fps. It
accomplishes all this through the use of a special propellant
powder. By the way, you get all this performance with only a
2-round loss of magazine capacity. Not bad.
The same source also said (at that time) that Remington was set to
produce 10 million rounds. 7 million will feature Hornady bullets,
and 3 million will have a bonded bullet (not sure which
manufacturer).
The following excerpts come from an interesting webpage, which is
operated and maintained by Phil West:
"On 17th June 2003 I received an email from a Cris Murry: "This is
a reply to the guess work all the supposed smart people are doing
on the 6.8x43mm. It would appear that our operational security is
working real well. But here are a few bits for you guys to chew on.
Its not made from a .25 Rem. case, or reforming .223 brass, how do
I know, I designed it. It has nearly the same flight path as the
7.62x51mm M80 ball round out to 650 meters. Delivers approx 4 times
the energy on target at 300 meters compared to a SS109 round. The
gel block tests are awesome. It drops a 150-300 lbs feral hogs like
an axe, also works great on whitetails. My first choice was 7mm
projectiles, but the users wanted something with a flatter
trajectory, closer to the 5.56. Tested all calibers 6mm, 6.5mm,
.25, 6.8 (.270 for Americans, oh actually the Chinese came up with
the 6.8x63mm in the 1930s), didn't do much testing in .30, because
it would only be an American M43 cartridge. This was not a private
endeavourer nor a fully sanctioned government project, just users
and a gun builder making a better product for our guys on the
ground, in harms way." "
"Many thanks to Stan Crist for forwarding the following Press
Release from Remington.
"The 6.8mm Remington SPC is an intermediate length rifle cartridge
based on the 30 Remington case. Designed to function in M4/M16 type
rifles, the 6.8mm Remington SPC was specifically developed to
provide increased reliability, incapacitation, and accuracy not
only at close quarters combat distance, but ranges out to 500
meters.
The 6.8mm Remington SPC, (Special Purpose Cartridge) will be
offered in three versions for 2004, including Remington's new
Premier® Match, line of ammunition. The 115 grain MatchKing® BTHP
bullet will deliver a muzzle velocity of 2800 fps and 2002 ft-lbs
of energy while providing low felt recoil and 1 MOA accuracy at 100
yards. The 6.8mm Remington SPC will also be available in both BTHP
and Metal-Case 115 grain versions." "
DocGKR, a.k.a. Gary Roberts, a moderator from TacticalForums.com,
started an informative thread on TF about the 6.8x43mm cartridge
and Barrett "6.8mm Rem SPC" upper receiver. It contains a high res
pic of the Barrett brochure for the 6.8mm Remington SPC upper. Just
click on this link to read the thread. DefRev recommends it.
Just as an aside, DefRev's source recently stated that the 6.8x43mm
round is going to prove to be an extremely impressive medium-size
game hunting cartridge. This source has already used the 6.8x43mm
SPC to drop some deer impressively quickly.
