Posted on 12/26/2008 3:55:08 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
ARLINGTON, VA. — The Marine Corps has moved one step closer to selecting a next-generation light automatic rifle.
On Friday, the Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va., announced contract awards for three competing weapons manufacturers to produce and deliver their final entries to the Corps by the middle of next year, in what signifies a final round of competition that began with ten candidates.
The lighter, magazine-fed Infantry Automatic Rifle — or IAR — is intended to replace the belt-fed M249 Squad Automatic Weapon — or SAW — in “the Marine Rifle Squad within infantry battalions and in the scout teams in Light Armored Reconnaissance battalions.”
But the rifle will not be for all Marines, according to a statement by MARSYSCOM spokesman Bill Johnson-Miles.
The Pentagon requested up to 10 samples of a 5.56 mm IAR prototype from FN Herstal, which would be made in Belgium; Heckler and Koch Defense, which is based in Ashburn, Va., but whose samples would be made in Germany, the home country of the parent company; and two entries from Colt Defense, made in West Hartford, Conn.
The rifles will then undergo limited testing by infantry Marines.
Under the five-year contracts, the Pentagon could tap the winning entrant for an acquisition of 4,476 rifles, with an option to purchase up to 6,500 copies at a possible value of $28 million for FN Herstal or Heckler & Koch, or $24 million for Colt.
The SAW, which is manufactured by FN Manufacturing, the US subsidiary of Belgium’s FN Herstal, weighs 16.5 pounds and fires 750 rounds per minute.
The lighter IAR candidate from FNH USA, for example, weighs in at 10.4 pounds and fires 650 rounds per minute.
Spokesmen from Heckler & Koch’s Ashburn, Va., office and FNH USA, in McLean, Va., did not return calls to Stars and Stripes.
The rifles are scheduled for deployable use in December 2010.
That is NOT the next generation rifle. It is the next generation light machine gun, not to be the personal weapon of most Marines.
Here’s a youtube video of the IAR - it shows up around the 4:00 mark.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=cVHLvtArC_g
My daughter (CPT, USAR) fired it -- as she was taught to fire the M-16 (with her nose against the charging handle -- for consistent sight picture). Her eyes watered for a couple of minutes after her first shot... ;-)
Gas piston
Problem solved for the entirety of the next generation of Marines.
Oh, just go ahead and pull the trigger.
Never having been in the US Military, I’m wondering why we’re outsourcing our US Military’s weapons to *other countries*? Shouldn’t Colt, Remington, Kimber etc get the chance, and not FN, Glock (yes, I know they’re assembled here), H&K etc?
Why aren’t WE designing/testing/producing our own weapons? Are our tanks, planes and ships, next?
Just curious, Jet Jaguar.
It isnt what the Marines want or need, it is who offers the biggest kickbacks to the pentagon buyers.
Has nothing to do with improvement or effectiveness, but has all to do with politics as usual.
They also might want something that fires 7.62. Make it also capable of feeding off a box or regular magazine. Each rifleman could carry one magazine of 7.62 along with their own ammunition. I would imagine it’s not easy to carry 7.62, whether it’s a light machine gun or an M14.
6.5mm is the most desireable bullet dia. for a ballistic coefficient. The US has been beating around the .30 and .22 Bush for decades and still don’t get it.
Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)
1918 design
Sigh, sad but true.
Friday GunPorn Bump!!!
I’d so love to work with Mach. Former SEAL, get to work with arms... is there a better job?
The BAR was in service for about 60 years, but the British “Brown Bess” was in service for over 150 years from 1722 on. (.75 caliber flint lock.)
Eye candy
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