Posted on 12/15/2010 7:44:53 PM PST by Pan_Yan
MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, Hawaii - Marine Corps Systems Command personnel and gun maker Heckler & Koch staff delivered more than 80 M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles Dec. 3 to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment armorers.
The rifles were being assembled and prepared for this week’s operator and maintainer training exercises to be conducted by 1/3 Squad Automatic Weapon gunners and armorers.
The hope is that the M27 IAR will be able to someday replace the heavier, less maneuverable M249 SAW in most situations.
“It’s definitely a good thing because it's lighter and more compact,” said Cpl. Ryan McDermott, an armorer with 1/3.
According to Capt. Edward Leon, Infantry Automatic Rifle project officer, the training will consist of formal classes and repetitions of known-distance and combat marksmanship training ranges.
“Marines will also conduct a transition course designed to begin to develop a skill set of engaging closer targets in full auto and long range targets in semi-auto,” Leon said.
The 1/3 will be testing the weapons throughout a full pre-deployment training schedule to deliver a pre-assessment of the weapon. Once the battalion deploys, they will conduct another assessment based on the performance of the weapon through the first one hundred days of operations.
After all battalions have completed their evaluations, they will be delivered to the commandant for review.
M27 IAR-wielding Marines can look forward to a number of new features while handling the weapon. The rifle has a six position adjustable butt stock, left and right handed sling mounting options, a guide in the magazine well to assist in speed reloads and a recoil-reducing compensator and butt stock pad. The rifle will also be equipped with the new Squad Day Optic.
The SDO mounts on the rifle to assist gunners in target detection and identification and increases accuracy. The optic also has a 3.5 times magnification range.
Also, the rifle has four mounting rails that can hold a forward grip, scope, visible light, infrared laser pointer and illuminator, bipod and more.
Probably the most notable difference between the M27 IAR and M249 SAW is the weight. The M27 IAR only weighs 9.2 pounds with a loaded magazine compared to the 22-pound M249 SAW.
Also testing the weapon system is Camp Lejuene’s 1st Battalion, 9th Marines Regiment, Camp Pendleton’s 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment and 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion and New England-based reservists 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment.
A full analysis of the weapon system should be completed by the third quarter of fiscal year 2011, Leon said.
The rifle has also undergone numerous preliminary tests before being delivered for use on the battalion level.
According to Leon, both a comparison test between the M27 IAR and the M249 SAW and hot and humid and cold weather conditions tests have been completed.
Saturday was the last training day for Marines and their new rifles under the supervision of MCSC and Heckler & Koch. Next week, it will be 1/9 Marines receiving the M27 IAR.
Ping. I saw you put up the last couple of threads about this.
I’m slow to understand why such a puny Army weapon deployment story is, well, a story.
...oops, Marine.
Because this is not a direct-impingement AR clone rifle.
This is A Big Deal.
1. It's the Marines, not the Army.
2. I put it in 'General/Chat', not 'News/Activism'.
3. Thousands of Americans died in Vietnam with their useless, jammed, untested, rushed into combat piece-of-crap AR-15s in their hands. I'd prefer not to see a repeat in Afghanistan.
Its a non-belt-fed suppresive fire weapon in a really wimpy caliber. I don’t see the upside. A select fire infantry weapon is one thing, but this is supposed to replace a machinegun. How does no sound?
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010/06/07/m27-infantry-automatic-rifle/
M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle
I read somewhere that the HK 416 was withdrawn from Army Spec Ops units because of lower receiver cracking. The article I read said it was a design flaw, not a manufacturing issue. I wonder if they fixed that?
Same caliber between them. A machinegun must be able to put down some steel. Mag fed just isn’t going to do it in 5.56 NATO. If I had to choose, I’d keep the SAW, even with its problems. If the M27 was 7.62 NATO it would at least have a decent caliber.
“Thousands of Americans died in Vietnam with their useless, jammed, untested, rushed into combat piece-of-crap AR-15s in their hands. I’d prefer not to see a repeat in Afghanistan. “
Maybe “thousands” died because they are required to have an IQ three points more than a fork to use it.
I see it today. The more technically advanced the equipment the dumber the troops are to absorb the technology...Not enough time is given for training....and the IQ factor isn’t getting any better.....
Seems like a lot of lost time during magazine changes. Full auto is so you can send a lot of rounds down range quickly. Can’t do that if you are changing mags all the time. Might as well have stuck to the full auto M16’s.
Why in the Sam Hill did Gene Stoner design the direct gas-impingement system in the first place?
Looks like an SR-25. Knight Armaments version of the AR10. Our SOG people like it for the ‘reach out and touch someone’ factor.
How much of the weight savings is now eaten up by additional magazines. I don’t see the benefit in this new light machine gun.
It would be for the caliber. A BAR at least had the oomph to hurt something, despite the mag fed disability. But I am a bit old school, having carried the M-60 (with ALL its problems, at least it put a world of hurt downrange). It would deny the enemy the ground in front of it. And that is the point of a light machinegun.
Yeh and the M60 makes a lot of noise and scares the heck out of the people down range. 5.56 sounds wimpy.
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