No doubts about that. But one should not forget that the German Army adopted at some point in the 50s the
G3 rifle for its newly formed army the Bundeswehr (based of the
Cetme Rifle design, created with help of German engineers in Spain). The Evolution didnt simply stoped after the war and designs got further changed and improved which eventualy lead to prototypes like the Stgw45 which was the base for the Cetme rifle and thus the G3 after the war was over many engineers moved to new companies or worked for other nations in licence so different nations improved certain designs and characteristics or used it as base for new weapons like th M60 for example which includes certain aspects of several captured German small arms like the FG42, MG42 etc. The G3 and similar weapons (FN Fal, Israelian Galil etc.) can be seen as so called battle rifles with automatic fire then assault rifles which usualy have lower range and cartridges. And only after Eugen Stoners development of lighter weapons chambered for the 5.56x45mm (well more the development of his assistants but nontheless) the idea of assault rifles in the traditional sense got adopted again with the M15 and 16 family for example. I think the choice of the 5.56 was not a good one for the future. But it probably was bette compared to the rather big 7.62mm NATO which had a pretty huge recoil and was quite heavy since the soldier can carry less amunition compared to the more light weight 5.56. Though it seems future designs might eventualy go for a combination of both bullets eventualy which lead to developments like the 6.8x43mm or cartridges of similar size. But many weapons seem also to utilize the powerfull 7,62x51mm NATO again like the HK417 for its excelent stoping power and accuracy. Evolution of assault rifles though is pretty much at its peak with powder bassed weapons and its unlikely that one can expect again such huge jumps like either the Avtomat Federov, Stgw or Ak since most weapons today are already at the maximum of what is possible in effectivness and inovation I mean we look back on a history of 80 years now (aprox). But we might still see the one or other smaller improvement over time. Proboably till we get the first standart pulse or plasma rifles
