Wow! Another potential upgrade for Marine Infantry...MAGPUL 60 Round Drum Mags!

Thanks to Eric for the link!

via Military.com

"For ... 30 years, I've been running Range 400," he said. "This is the first time I've ever ran it with a maneuver element that is suppressed and a company-level machine gun element that is also suppressed."

As a bonus, Marines in the squad will be equipped with Magpul 60-round polymer drum magazines. Military.com reported back in January that various conventional and special operations units were testing the drum in small quantities as a substitute for traditional 30-round magazines.

While the drums offer a lot of portable firepower, there's also a question of weight to consider. Wade said he planned to set the unit up with about 100 of the drums and let each Marine figure out how many he needed to fight effectively.

"What I think I'm going to find is that, with the ingenuity of the lance corporal, everything is going to find its place," he said. "My assumption is they're ultimately going to be carrying one [drum]."

Story here. 

Ok.  Trying to be calm here, but all this common sense coming out of HQMC is starting to give me a woody.

This is beyond awesome and is a capability that we should have had long ago.  Nice to see them finally acting on it.  Gotta agree with the Gunner too.  I think one 60 round drum will be the sweet spot for each Infantryman.

Awesome, awesome, awesome news.

Sidenote.  60 rounds will probably be enough for most engagements too.  If you find yourself going to your 30 round mags then you know you stepped on a hornets nest.  This should help future squad leaders properly monitor their troops just based on this one factor alone.  If you're switching to fresh mags then maybe its time to speed up those calls for fire and spooling up reinforcements!