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Original caption: "Marine Cpl. Alfredo Ibarra from Laredo, Texas, attached to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, fires an M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR) during a combat-marksmanship program weapons exercise on the flight deck of the amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 48)." Image credit: US Navy, Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jonathan Clay, public domain. The United States Marine Corps has issued a new acquisition notice for up to 50,814 M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles (IAR), to be sole sourced from Heckler & Koch. The notice is technically not a solicitation in and of itself, but a pre-solicitation notice,...

Last week, the U.S. Marine Corps released a Request for Information to manufacturers enquiring about their capacity to produce 11,000 more M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles. This stoked rumors that the Marine Corps is looking to replace its M4s with the M27, which were first sparked last November when 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines was equipped with the M27 instead of the M4 during pre-deployment exercises as an experiment. The RFI for 11,000 M27s could indicate a possible push to replace the M249, which continues to be used by weapons platoons. However, I believe it is more likely that the Corps is...

Explanation: While hunting for comets in the skies above 18th century France, astronomer Charles Messier diligently kept a list of the things he encountered that were definitely not comets. This is number 27 on his now famous not-a-comet list. In fact, 21st century astronomers would identify it as a planetary nebula, but it's not a planet either, even though it may appear round and planet-like in a small telescope. Messier 27 (M27) is an excellent example of a gaseous emission nebula created as a sun-like star runs out of nuclear fuel in its core. The nebula forms as the star's...

Explanation: Buffeted by the solar wind, Comet Lovejoy's crooked ion tail stretches over 3 degrees across this telescopic field of view, recorded on February 20. The starry background includes awesome bluish star Phi Persei below, and pretty planetary nebula M76 just above Lovejoy's long tail. Also known as the Little Dumbbell Nebula, after its brighter cousin M27 the Dumbbell Nebula, M76 is only a Full Moon's width away from the comet's greenish coma. Still shining in northern hemisphere skies, this Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) is outbound from the inner solar system some 10 light-minutes or 190 million kilometers from Earth....

Explanation: The first hint of what will become of our Sun was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, the type of nebula our Sun will produce when nuclear fusion stops in its core. M27 is one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky, and can be seen toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula) with binoculars. It takes light about 1000 years to reach us...

Explanation: The first hint of what will become of our Sun was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, the type of nebula our Sun will produce when nuclear fusion stops in its core. M27 is one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky, and can be seen toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula) with binoculars. It takes light about 1000 years to reach us...

Explanation: While hunting for comets in the skies above 18th century France, astronomer Charles Messier diligently kept a list of the things he encountered that were definitely not comets. This is number 27 on his now famous not-a-comet list. In fact, 21st century astronomers would identify it as a planetary nebula, but it's not a planet either, even though it may appear round and planet-like in a small telescope. Messier 27 (M27) is an excellent example of a gaseous emission nebula created as a sun-like star runs out of nuclear fuel in its core. The nebula forms as the star's...

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...

Lt. Gen. George Flynn, who heads the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, told reporters at a Washington, D.C. breakfast that the service plans to finish outfitting five battalions with the new M-27 Infantry Automatic Rifle next month and then will observe how those Marines use it on deployment before changing the organization, training, and tactics of infantry units around the new weapon. But Flynn pushed back at critics of the M-27, saying the improved accuracy of the Heckler and Koch-made automatic rifle makes up for a lower rate of fire compared to the M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon it's...

The Corps will purchase 450 auto-rifles, now known as M27s, officials said. The weapon could reach a few infantry battalions beginning this fall, providing the IAR program a chance to prove to Conway that it is ready to be widely fielded as a replacement for the 5.56mm M249 squad automatic weapon, which has been in use since the 1980s.

The Marine Corps will field its new, lightweight auto rifle this fall to five combat battalions preparing for war-zone deployments. Commandant Gen. James T. Conway gave Corps officials the green light in April to issue approximately 450 M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles, enough to replace every M249 squad automatic weapon in four infantry battalions and one light armored reconnaissance battalion. The limited fielding is a final test to find out if the Heckler & Koch-made weapon performs as well in an operational environment as it has in testing, said Charles Clark III, who oversees infantry weapons requirements at the Corps' Combat...

Yesterday, I sent this email to the M27 Coalition. They are the folks who are rabidly anti-freedom and sponsored, among other things, last week's so-called die-in at Rockefeller Center. M27, Some of us just can't stand it any more. But we have learned that some ships that supply the war effort make passage through the East River in New York City. Tomorrow, in an act of civil disobedience, several of us have planned to try and block these ships along their route. We are only about 14 strong now, but we know that if word got out we could have...