+1 on Matt's post. Field time is the only real prover of reliability. Gimmicks you've seen done by manufacturers like the sand mud water test don't really prove anything, except that the dust cover and drainage holes work. It's smoke and mirrors. Military contracts aren't that big of a deal either, since they will buy what's most economical and meets their standards, not what is necessarily best. SCAR's aren't economical in the least since they cost more per unit, and they don't offer that much more performance over existing systems, which any number of us could have told before the announcement was made if we weren't so stupidly starstruck over it. A piston design with a rail and flip up irons and whatever bells and whistles is still a 5.56 or 7.62 with an 18 or 20 inch barrel which may or may not be a fraction of a percent more reliable.
All this applies to the 416, ACR, piston ARs and pretty much anything new and wow we can think of in the last 10 years. It's fun to dream but sadly these weapon systems have no real place in todays world or economy, except in movies and videogames, which are just parts that further their idiotic hype. These guns are the reality TV stars and celebutantes of the firearms world, and we need to realize that.
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