The Rodman Laboratories XM235 was one of the contenders for the
Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) trials in 1975-1976.
Development
The
Fabrique Nationale
Fabrique Nationale Herstal (), trading as FN Herstal and often referred to as Fabrique Nationale or simply FN, is a leading firearms manufacturer based in Herstal, Belgium. It is currently the largest exporter of military small arms in Europe.
...
Minimi (designated XM249),
Heckler & Koch
Heckler & Koch GmbH (HK; ) is a German defense manufacturing company that manufactures handguns, rifles, submachine guns, and grenade launchers. The company is located in Oberndorf am Neckar in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, and also ...
HK23 (designated XM262), and a heavy-barreled version of the
M16
The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-roun ...
(designated the
XM106) were used as a control group. They were supposed to be used to figure out a baseline for the SAW contenders, which were the experimental group. They were already eliminated from consideration because they were chambered for the 5.56mm NATO cartridge.
The XM235 they designed was merely a prototype and Rodman Laboratories didn't have the facilities or expertise to copy and mass produce it. When the XM235 was selected for the 5.56mm SAW trials,
Maremont Corporation and
Ford Aerospace and Communication bid on the rights to make an improved model rechambered in 5.56mm designated the XM238.
Ammunition
The XM235 was chambered for the experimental
6×45mm SAW cartridge. It had a 105-grain
.8 gramprojectile and had a muzzle velocity of 2450 feet / second
47 meters / second The cartridge was intermediate in size between the 5.56×45mm NATO and 7.62×51mm NATO rounds and was considered essential for the SAW concept. The current 5.56×45mm NATO tracer round was not effective in daylight conditions beyond 800 meters, the proposed effective range for the hypothetical SAW system.
The difficulty of standardizing and supplying a third cartridge, as well as the political bramble the US would have to clamber through to force its approval on their NATO allies, led to the dropping of the requirement that the SAW be chambered in 6mm. The next round of testing (1979-1980) would use weapons chambered for the 5.56mm NATO round.
Rodman Laboratories
The facility was part of the
Rock Island Arsenal
The Rock Island Arsenal comprises , located on Arsenal Island, originally known as Rock Island, on the Mississippi River between the cities of Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois. It lies within the state of Illinois. Rock Island ...
campus. It was named for
Lt.-Col. Thomas Jackson Rodman
Thomas Jackson Rodman (July 31, 1816 – June 7, 1871) was an American artillerist, inventor, ordnance specialist, and career United States Army officer.Dupuy, p. 636. He served as a Union Army officer during the American Civil War, in which he wa ...
, who helped found Rock Island Arsenal in 1865 and was its commander until his death in 1871.
The team that worked on the XM235 was headed by Curtis D. Johnson. It was composed of Lonnie D. Antwiler, Larry C. McFarland, Arthur R. Meyer, Fred J. Skahill, Doyle L. White, Keith L. Witwer, and Richard L. Wulff.
See also
*
Brunswick machine gun
*
Ford Aerospace XM234
External links
The SAWs that never WAS: Part 2, the XM-248’s forerunner, XM235US Patent US-3999461-A: ''Modular lightweight squad automatic weapon system''
Light machine guns
Trial and research firearms of the United States