A few days later, in her capacity as president of D&F, Serena formally proposed to BAE Systems to buy her stake in FN for $600 million. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The result is clear: the stone is in the sea.

Not to mention a promise, not even an official reply.

It was only after a week that Serena received a CC email stating that BAE Systems had no intention of selling any of the company's assets for the time being.

In the meantime, Nicholas got a key piece of news.

The LAST machine gun has passed the acceptance of the US military, and the consumption of 8mm countersunk ammunition has reached 500,000 rounds, of which 100,000 rounds are combat consumption, that is, used by US special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the reliability and performance of the ammunition have reached or exceeded the basic indicators.

In addition, the XM-8X rifle, developed by H&K on the basis of the XM-8 and firing 8mm countersunk rounds, has also been delivered to the US military test center.

At the same time, the NATO Standards Committee also officially began to develop specifications for the third generation of standard-caliber gun cartridges.

Strictly speaking, a series of specifications containing three caliber bullets.

NATO's first generation of standard-caliber gun cartridges is 7.62 mm NATO shells, and the second generation is 5.56 mm NATO shells, and it is not a substitution relationship, that is, 5.56 mm NATO shells do not replace 7.62 mm NATO shells, but only unify small-caliber rifle ammunition.

The third-generation standard is completely different, and for the sake of substitution, that is, the small-caliber rifle cartridge replaces the 5.56 mm NATO round, the general-purpose gun cartridge replaces the 7.62 mm NATO cartridge, and the machine gun cartridge replaces the .50in round, covering all firearms from assault rifles to heavy machine guns, which is of epoch-making significance.

For this reason, the selection of OICW is far from over.

The point is that the core of OICW is a small-caliber rifle, while H&K has developed a squad support rifle based on the 8mm countersunk round.

According to the definition of the US military, the warhead diameter of a small-caliber bullet must be less than 7 mm.

Being able to develop an 8 mm countersunk is not the same as being able to develop a 7 mm or less countersunk projectile.

In Zhao Yu's words, with the reduction of caliber, the heat capacity of the bullet decreases rapidly, which puts forward more stringent requirements for the performance of the propellant and the loading process.

In fact, conventional propellants simply cannot be used on small-caliber countersunks.

According to Zhao Yu's analysis, the US military has only two options, one is to drag it out and wait for the Textron company to develop a small-caliber countersunk bullet, and the other is to give up small-caliber bullets and use 8 mm countersunk bullets as rifle bullets, and the US military is very likely to choose the latter method.

The key is that actual combat has repeatedly proved that small-caliber bullets represented by SS109 bullets are becoming more and more unusable.

In both Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military officers and soldiers prefer to use large-caliber rifles that fire 7.62mm NATO rounds.

In addition, the mass of the 8mm countersunk is only 60% of that of the 7.62mm NATO round, the size is not much different from the SS109 round, and it will not affect the individual man-carrying volume, and thanks to the efficient muzzle brake, the controllability of the LAST machine gun firing the 8mm countersunk is more than that of the M240B.

The use of 8mm countersunk ammunition on rifles does not put more burden on the infantry.

In contrast, the performance improvement brought by the 8mm submerged bullet, especially the lethality of protected personnel, is by no means comparable to the SS109 bullet.

In fact, when dealing with protected personnel, 7.62mm NATO shells are very difficult.

If the U.S. military gives up small-caliber bullets and uses 8mm countersunk bullets as rifle bullets, the blue team led by H&K will definitely win the OICW project, and the 8mm countersunk will become the standard ammunition of the NATO bloc, and the BAE Systems company of the gold team will lose hundreds of billions of dollars in the market.

The NATO Standards Committee did not relent, and it has a lot to do with BAE Systems.

It's just, how long can it be delayed?

It is not Britain that dominates NATO, but the United States, and the OICW selection will determine the caliber of the next generation of rifle cartridges, and the US military obviously does not care about the gains and losses of BAE Systems.

What's more, Russia and China are also developing new types of guns and ammunition.

If we say that more than ten years ago, that is, when the OICW project was launched, the need for the US military to replace its standard guns was not very urgent, after all, the enemies of the US army were terrorists who rode on camels, lived in tents, or hid in caves, and used AK rifles.

Now, that's no longer the case.

More than 10 years ago, only the US military, which had deep pockets, was able to distribute body armor to all officers and soldiers, and many US officers and soldiers were willing to buy better body armor at their own expense.

Not to mention terrorists, even Russia and China have not listed body armor as standard equipment.

As Huaxia enterprises mastered the production process of synthetic fibers necessary for the manufacture of body armor, in just a few years, body armor has become civilian from a tall level, and the market price has plummeted from tens of thousands of dollars to less than 1,000 US dollars, and has rapidly spread around the world.

The popularization of body armor has first called into question the value of small-caliber rifles.

With the widespread promotion of body armor with additional expansion functions, even 7.62mm NATO shells have been impacted, let alone small-caliber bullets.

The U.S. military has long tested that several high-performance body armor produced by Huaxia and sold worldwide can block M80 bullets at any distance. In Afghanistan and Iraq, British, Canadian, and American officers and soldiers have repeatedly demonstrated the performance of these body armor in actual combat.

What's worse is that many terrorists also wear body armor.

If they can't wear body armor, will a soldier trust a firearm in his hand?

Obviously, the development of new types of guns and ammunition has become an urgent need.

The United States has made great efforts to develop submerged munitions, and Russia and China are no exception, both of which have worked ammunition and have focused on propellants.

It's just that Russia and China do a better job of secrecy, and rarely disclose relevant information.

To be sure, U.S. intelligence agencies are definitely eyeing Russia vs. China, and the U.S. military clearly doesn't want to be overtaken by the two main adversaries.

Over the years, the U.S. Army has allocated funds for Textron's headshot program, which is to occupy the technological high ground.

The 8-mm submerged head bomb has been successfully developed, will the US military continue to wait?

According to the usual tradition of the US military, it will first be equipped with 8mm countersunk bullets and corresponding firearms, and then put pressure on the NATO Standards Committee to let the NATO bloc adopt the standards of the US military, and finally promote the standard caliber of the US military to the entire NATO bloc and become the NATO standard.

Obviously, time is running out for BAE Systems.

Developing a new type of cartridge from scratch takes a lot of time and is impractical, so BAE Systems' only option is to work with a company that owns the new cartridge.

D&F is one such company.

BAE Systems' indifferent response is not to say that D&F's technology is not needed, but to force D&F to lower its asking price and get what it wants at the lowest cost.

In addition, D&F had to prove that it had what BAE Systems wanted.