For a twenty inch barrel, a bullpup makes eminent sense. Since everyone has gone to 14-16 inch barrels the savings are not as great. The short barrels might be simply catering to the immediate situation that they appear to face. Given a battlefield with any open areas, they might change their opinion.
All of those weight savings one gets from an AR are quickly spent once you insist on a traditional layout in order to fit your cigarette lighter and garage door opener on as accessories.
I think this is a cost saving over the TAvor platform for one thing, but most like just giving a consistent training standard of arms over all services and for a few decades. Should they occasionally get offered a cheap source of AR again from the US, they can take them too without much of a change in drills.
All of those weight savings one gets from an AR are quickly spent once you insist on a traditional layout in order to fit your cigarette lighter and garage door opener on as accessories.
I think this is a cost saving over the TAvor platform for one thing, but most like just giving a consistent training standard of arms over all services and for a few decades. Should they occasionally get offered a cheap source of AR again from the US, they can take them too without much of a change in drills.