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Objective Individual Combat Weapon
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<p>The Objective Individual Combat Weapon or OICW was the next-generation service <a href="/facts/Rifle/H3mJx7U4">rifle</a> competition that was under development as part of the <a href="/facts/United_States_Army/WACWBEK9">United States Army</a> OICW program; the program was eventually discontinued without bringing the weapon out of the prototype phase. The acronym OICW is often used to refer to the entire weapons program. </p><p>It was started in the aftermath of the <a href="/facts/Advanced_Combat_Rifle/lvPRX1A9">Advanced Combat Rifle</a> (or ACR) during the 1980s. Like the ACR program, it has largely been a failure in terms of achieving the specific program goals (e.g., replacing the <a href="/facts/M16_rifle/kre1Wcpd">M16</a>) and has cost millions of dollars, but has resulted in many innovative weapons and weapon concepts as well as offshoot programs of its own. </p>