I liked the XM8's concept and thought it had a lot of potential. It did rather well in the various tests it was subjected to, but the various competitions held to replace the M4A1 never picked a winner. Apparently General Petraeus asked to keep one for himself when he was watching an XM8 demonstration. Did he get to keep it given what happened to him later?
Anyway, while it's in service with a few small forces, parts of it have survived elsewhere, such as the related HK416 series of rifles. I wonder if the USMC-adopted M27 IAR's role could have been filled by the XM8 LMG variant.
I remember hearing that the PCAP accessory attachment system the XM8 used could retain a sight's zero even if it was removed and replaced. Was that ever tested to see if XM8 users could swap in a sight with magnification and one without magnification to see if the zero was not affected? We have magnifiers that can be moved into or out of the user's field when placed behind an optical sight now, but I'd like to know if this kind of sight-swapping might allow for a lighter load, as well as allowing one to carry a backup optical sight in case of battery failure or damage to the optical sight.
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