Quote:
Originally Posted by NeonSamurai
There is a ton of research done on the effectiveness of different rounds by the military. The 5.56x45mm NATO for example can cause a lot of trauma to the human body due to its tendency to tumble and break apart on impact (depends on load, weapon, and distance) and cause increased amounts of hydrostatic shock. It's kill probability per shot though, is much lower than say the 7.62x51mm NATO, though the wounds the 5.56 create tend to be much harder to treat surgically. Hence its reputation as a wounding round.
From a military theory perspective it is more advantageous to seriously cripple or wound your adversary rather than kill them, this is with the idea that the enemy will have to deal with the casualties by either trying to treat them, or having to dispose of them. In fact several bullets since the 5.56mm (that one happened to be more of a fluke in the design) were designed with the intent that they tumble and fragment on impact to increase the trauma and severity of the wounds caused. They have all tended to be smaller lightweight rounds that also have lower first shot pk ratios.
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What the military theorist thinks is a good idea and what the person actually fighting is a good idea can greatly differ.What you say about the 5.56mm round in comparison to the 7.62x51mm round is true but the reasoning has much more to do with ballistics than anything a heavy round is naturally going to have more effect than a light weight one.More rounds are always better which is why smaller calibers are popular with armed forces mainly because a solider can carry many more small caliber rounds in the same amount of weight as a larger round.
I would argue that what is best killing or wounding is a matter of what foe you are facing for the US and our allies in Afghanistan it is much better to kill for the Taliban to a certain extent is better for them to wound enemy troops because of its negative morale effects and the effect.
Taliban dead fighter no longer a problem.Taliban wounded fighter he goes and inspires others to fight you or comes back to fight you again directly.
Now you take two large industrialized nations and the cost of dealing with wounded mounts up.At the same time Many nations suffered a lot of losses to casualties but that did not stop thier will to might there are always more young men somewhere after all.