Yeah, the SCAR has its downsides, not the least of which is the fact that it is a proprietary commercial design, which means spare parts are expensive and hard to come by, and will dry up very quickly if it doesn't end up getting adopted as a service rifle and FN stops production.
There are a few things that I don't like about the design, too. For one, I don't like the short stubby handguards and short sight radius. I realize they had to do this to be able to use the same handguard on a 12" barrel as on a 20", but I like a longer handguard for the shooting techniques I use. I also don't like how it has a quad rail handguard instead of a modular one that allows you to use rails only when and where you want. Since the handguard is part of the receiver, these things aren't easy to swap out like on an AR.
But I do agree that both the weight and the accuracy they were able to achieve with the SCAR are amazing. It has some serious potential to be the ideal battle rifle with a few tweaks, AND if it actually gets adopted as a service rifle and more manufacturers start making rifles/parts.
There are a few things that I don't like about the design, too. For one, I don't like the short stubby handguards and short sight radius. I realize they had to do this to be able to use the same handguard on a 12" barrel as on a 20", but I like a longer handguard for the shooting techniques I use. I also don't like how it has a quad rail handguard instead of a modular one that allows you to use rails only when and where you want. Since the handguard is part of the receiver, these things aren't easy to swap out like on an AR.
But I do agree that both the weight and the accuracy they were able to achieve with the SCAR are amazing. It has some serious potential to be the ideal battle rifle with a few tweaks, AND if it actually gets adopted as a service rifle and more manufacturers start making rifles/parts.