New infantry rifle?

According to the GeekWithA.45, it looks like a new primary battle rifle, with several variants, will be on its way to our soldiers in the next couple years:

It's going to be the XM-8, in 6.8 Remington, fielded in large numbers starting in 2006.

Now I'm no expert but no less an authority than the ever-irascible Kim du Toit has been calling for the switch to a more powerful round for some time. The evidence I've read indicates that the 5.56 round just isn't powerful enough for today's battlefield. As I understand it, the ostensible reasons for selecting that round in the first place were weight and recoil. But since then there has been a lot of evidence that it just doesn't have enough punch to deal with what our soldiers are facing nowadays in Iraq and elsewhere.

As noted in the page the Geek links to, the XM-8 was originally chambered for the 5.56 round but chambering it for the 6.8 Remington won't be a problem. The 6.8 is just a bit longer than the 5.56 and no modifications to existing magazines is required. As mentioned in the Geek's post, it should also be possible to manufacture M-16 and M-4 upper receivers for the 6.8 since the lowers and magazines will all work just fine. (Again, I'm no expert, but it seems to me that replacing the entire upper might not even be necessary. The bolt assembly and barrel might be all that's required.)

There is at least one potential issue however. As a friend of mine commented when I told him about this, switching to the new cartridge would result in deviation from the established NATO standards. We'll have to wait and see how that shakes out. I'll definitely keep my eyes and ears open for any additional information on this. In my opinion, however, the safety of our troops is the paramount concern and this round will definitely be more effective without adding much weight or recoil.