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6×45mm SAW

Experimental series of rifle cartridges

Field	Value
name	6×45mm SAW
image	280britishcompare.jpg	image_size = 300px
caption	From left to right: 6mm SAW, 6.5 Grendel, 6.8 SPC, 7mm Bench Rest, .280/30 British, 7mm-08, 7mm Second Optimum (Liviano), .276 Pedersen, .308×1.75", 7.62×51 NATO.
origin	United States
type	Rifle
designer	Frankford Arsenal
design_date	Early 1970s
is_SI_specs	yes
case_type	Rimless, Bottleneck
bullet	6.17
neck	6.63
shoulder	9.72
base	10.26
rim_dia	10.36
case_length	45.01
length	65.54
primer	Boxer
bw1	105
vel1	2520
en1	1488

The 6×45mm SAW describes an experimental series of rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridges developed in the 1970s for the U.S. Army. The cartridges were produced in a variety of sizes and from a variety of materials. The intent was to develop a cartridge that would replace all 5.56×45mm NATO weapons as well as most 7.62×51mm NATO rifles and machine guns in the U.S. military. Eventually, the 5.56mm was retained and only the machine gun portion of the SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) competition was successful. That program led to the M249 light machine gun.

Note that the dimensions listed to the right are for 6×45mm SAW rounds. Three versions were produced for testing in the early 1970s. An aluminum-cased version was developed, as well as the about 5 mm longer 6mm SAW Long.

Design and development

During the 1970s, the U.S. Army was looking to develop a new squad automatic weapon (SAW) that was lighter than the M60 machine gun with an effective range out to 800 m. The 7.62 mm cartridge was too heavy and the 5.56 mm cartridge could not provide effective performance at that range. Research led to the development of the 6×45mm SAW cartridge. Its 105 gr bullet had a muzzle velocity of 2,520 ft/s and muzzle energy of 1,488 ftlb. The relatively heavy bullet combined with a moderate velocity had optimum long-range performance. A light-alloy cased version of the round was also produced. Because aluminium alloy had a tendency to catch fire, the case length was extended to 50 mm to make up for loss in capacity caused by the need to line the inside of the case with fire-resistant material. Although the 6mm SAW's performance proved satisfactory, there were supply concerns over adopting a third rifle caliber. Development of the 6mm SAW was abandoned when an improved 5.56 mm round was promised, which arrived as the M855. 6×45mm SAW cartridges depending on their case materiel and bullet weigh 10.6 to.

Chambered firearms

Brunswick machine gun
Maremont XM233
Ford Aerospace XM234
Rodman Laboratories XM235
Ford Aerospace XM248

References

[https://web.archive.org/web/20190820120420/http://www.municion.org/6Mm/6x45Saw.htm Municion.org on the 6x45mm SAW] [https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.municion.org/6Mm/6x45Saw.htm (translated)]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200218171632/http://www.municion.org/6Mm/6x50Saw.htm Municion.org on the 6x50mm SAW Long] [https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.municion.org/6Mm/6x50Saw.htm (translated)]
"Machine gun".
(June 28, 2023). "The SAWs that never WAS: Part 1 & 2".
"The SAWs that never WAS: Part 3, XM248". Bill St. Clair.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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