Hmm...why was NATO standard ammo made?

[Charliegone]

So, why was it?
Did it have to do with wars, conflicts, etc....or was it because they all wanted something standard (in other words being able to use the same ammo) to use..

[bobfried]

A small little thing called the Cold War.

Fighting a small entity called the Warsaw Pact.

No reasons really, they just did it for **** and giggles.

[caduckgunner]

They wanted to use the same ammo, so the Canadians could resupply the dutch, the turks resupply the rnglish, etc...

[Rumpled]

It was for standardization. Guess who was most for standardization, and then guess who was the first to change their main battle rifle away from that standard?

[xenophobe]

It was for standardization. Guess who was most for standardization, and then guess who was the first to change their main battle rifle away from that standard?

US, of course... lmao

[AJAX22]

they did it so all the little countries could mooch off the big ones.

[MrLogan]

US, of course... lmao

What was changed?

[VeryCoolCat]

The main reason for standardization is so that trade and aid to smaller countries would be easier.

7.62x39 is in practically every country... thats what standardization does.

It lowers the cost of producing weapons and ammunition if everything is being made similar.

Look how much HK weapons are. They are pretty unique too.

[Fjold]

What was changed?

The Nato standard (pushed by the US) was the 7.62x51 and then the US decided to change to the 5.56mm

[Rumpled]

7.62 to 5.56

[VeryCoolCat]

.308 is still a Standard NATO Caliber.

They didn't abandon 308 for 5.56... they added 5.56

.308 is still used for many squad based or vehicle based machineguns and long range rifles.

[M. Sage]

Don't forget standard mags, too. You can toss a Brit one of our 30-round mags, and he can pop it into his L85.

@Cat: Yes, but this was for rifles. The British had an awesome intermediate round cooked up, and the US pushed for .308 instead. Imagine how pissed the Brits and everybody else were after we said "naaaaah. We don't really like 7.62x51, we're gonna go to .223 for infantry rifles."