Both the 5.56 M995 and its 7.62 counter part are made by Bofors and are intended to give small arms more penetration ability lightly armored vehicles and such. We had a chance to do some testing with the M995 round, along with Bofor's 9mm AP round. I was curious to see how the 5.56 M995 would perform against a windshield at various ranges/angles. While it may take several M855/M193 rounds to weaken the glass enough for intact bullets to pass, 1 M995 will penetrate with enough retained mass to be lethal. The penetration provided by the dense tungston carbide core is extremely impressive, and offers increased capability to engage people in vehicles and such. The 7.62 counterpart is obviously much more impressive. We did some testing against a turbine engine frome a UH1 Huey along with some aviation glass and its performance was impressive. This round is certainly capaible of penetrating an engine block in a vehicle or aircraft
to immobilize it. The M995 has limited utility ouside the M249 system. Its a very poor anti-personel round as it doesn't fragment. There is some yawing/tumbling after de-stabilization, but lethality is vastly inferior to M855. Its best utilized on SAW belts with M995 every 4th round, or even every other round. I have observed SAW's mounted on vehicles using belts entirely of M995 and tracers. This round offer a huge advantage over M855 when opposing vehicles. It also offer an increased penetration against barriers, though 5.56 doesn't do this as well as 7.62 but the M995 is a vast improvement. This ammo is very rare and coveted. Its expensive and hasn't been fully issued/circulated. It does exist in quantity with Spec Ops units. I observed a SEAL using a Para SAW and his belts were loaded as follows; Mk262, Mk262, Mk262, M995 and tracer. I was impressed, as this would be a very effective weapon/ammo combo. Don't ask your uncle in the NG for M995, he probably hasn't heard of it or seen it. Its scarce outside of special ops units and even if your pal in the USMC could get it, it would be illegal for you to possess as its true AP ammo.