Heir to the Throne

Arthur was still very interested in the automatic rifle developed by Browning, and even personally watched the live testing of the BLN-28 rifle.

For convenience in later stages, the rifle had been designed to use the same ammunition as the Lee-Enfield Rifle, with a caliber of approximately .303 inches, or 7.7 millimeters.

Using this ammunition gave the Lee-Enfield Rifle considerable stopping power, allowing it to perform unexpectedly well in trench warfare.

The Lee-Enfield Rifle's tested maximum firing rate was approximately thirty rounds per minute, which was practically the limit for semi-automatic rifles at present.

It had to be remembered that the Lee-Enfield's magazine held only ten rounds. That meant emptying three magazines in one minute, which was already extremely difficult.

That was why Arthur said the Lee-Enfield Rifle's firepower was already sufficient. No country could withstand the consumption of even more weapons and ammunition.

Although fully automatic rifles looked more appealing, even the test-version BLN28 automatic rifle could fire at a rate of more than sixty rounds per minute.

But that also meant that ammunition consumption during war would double, creating a tremendous test for logistics and national finances alike.

Although fully automatic rifles could effectively increase an army's firepower, a large portion of that firepower was redundant and had little impact on actual combat.

If more firepower was truly needed, it would be better to continue increasing the number and power of light machine guns and artillery. That was the truly effective way to improve firepower.

Although Arthur had no intention of equipping the army with fully automatic rifles on a large scale, the BLN28 automatic rifle still had considerable uses for the time being.

After the rifle tests ended, Arthur expressed his idea of forming a new army to several generals from the Ministry of Defense, and stated