Tag Archives: Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System

Guns of the Air Force at 75

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While Ben Franklin theorized using airships to deliver troops to battle behind enemy lines as early as 1783 and the Union Army fielded a balloon service in the Civil War, today’s Air Force traces its origin to the heavier-than-air machines of the U.S. Army’s Aeronautical Division, founded in 1907– just four years after the Wright brothers first flew. After service in Army green during both World Wars, the Air Force became an independent branch of the military in 1947 with the first Secretary of the Air Force named on Sept. 18 and its first Chief of Staff named on Sept. 26. 

To salute the 75th birthday of the USAF this week, I took a deep dive into the small arms of the organization over the years, including some rares.

Cold War-era Colt survival gun prototype
A Cold War-era Colt survival gun prototype on display at the USAF Armament Museum (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Remington XP-100 survival gun
The Remington XP-100 survival gun concept. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Bushmaster Arm Pistol in 5.56mm
The Bushmaster Arm Pistol in 5.56mm was another planned Air Force survival gun that made it about as high as a lead balloon. Bushmaster did, however, put it in limited commercial production. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

More in my column at Guns.com.

 

Army Inks Deal with Sig for .300/.338 Norma Mag

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New Hampshire-based Sig Sauer recently picked up a nine-figure award from the U.S. Army Contracting Command for .300 and .338 Norma Magnum ammunition.

Announced by the Pentagon on June 7, the $157.3 million firm-fixed-price contract covers the production of .300 Norma Magnum 215-grain M1163 ball ammunition and .338 NM 300-grain armor-piercing M1162 cartridges for the Army. Although not a standard round for most U.S. military small arms – that’s reserved for 5.56 and 7.62 NATO along with the new 6.8 NGSW Common Cartridge – the Army and Marines are both using .300 NM and .338 NM in the MK22 Advanced Sniper Rifle program.

The MK22, a variant of the Barrett MRAD, is a modular system that will be fielded with three separate calibers, .338 Norma Magnum, .300 Norma Magnum, and 7.62 NATO, with the user able to swap calibers through barrel changes based on mission operating environments. Above is the Mk22 Mod 0 ASR including a Precision Day Optic. It is fed from a 10-round detachable magazine. (Photo: Tonya Smith/Marine Corps Systems Command).

More in my column at Guns.com.

Army & Air Force Sniper Rifle Updates

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The Army’s Picatinny Arsenal earlier this month announced it has ordered an additional 485 of the service’s newest bolt-action sniper rifles, the MK22, from Barrett Firearms in Tennessee. Also known as the Advanced Sniper Rifle and the Precision Sniper Rifle, the MK22 is based on Barrett’s Multi-role Adaptive Design, or MRAD, platform. It is part of a program to replace the service’s existing Remington-made M2010 bolt guns, as well as the M107 .50 cal.

The MK22 is a version of Barrett’s popular MRAD bolt gun, which can be swapped between three different calibers on the fly, hence the “Multi Role Adaptive Rifle” abbreviation. The MK22 is part of the Army’s Precision Sniper Rifle Program, which also includes the Leupold Mark 5HD 5-25×56 optic – complete with a flat dark earth coating and the Army’s patented Mil-Grid reticle – on a Badger Ordnance mount, along with a suppressor and a sniper accessory kit. (Photo: U.S. Army)

Meanwhile, the Air Force is almost done fielding 1,500 new M110A1 Squad Designated Marksman Rifles. The SDMR is a variant of HK’s 7.62 NATO G28/HK417 rifle that includes offset backup sights, a Geissele mount, OSS suppressor, Harris bipod, and Sig Sauer’s 1-6x24mm Tango6 optic.

A sergeant with the 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team fires the M110A1 Squad Designated Marksman Rifle (SDMR) at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (Photo: Spc. Michael Schwenk/New Jersey National Guard)

Why does the Air Force need 1,500 SDMRs?

More in my column at Guns.com.

The SDMR isn’t vaporware afterall

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The Squad Designated Marksman Rifle (SDMR), a variant of Heckler & Koch’s 7.62 mm NATO G28/HK417, was selected in 2019 by the Army who will eventually receive between 5,000 and 6,000 systems, which will filter down to the squad-level when fully fielded.

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Stewart, Georgia, was the first in the Army to receive the M110A1, with Joes fielding their guns this month.

The rifle is intended to fill the gap between the standard 5.56 NATO M4 and a dedicated sniper platform, a mission formerly held by accurized M14s.

The SDMR includes off set backup sights, a Geissele mount, OSS suppressor, Harris bipod, and Sig Sauer’s 1-6x24mm Tango6 optic. (Photo: U.S. Army)

More in my column at Guns.com 

Army’s new SDMR rifles start shipping

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Heckler & Koch announced Thursday the first batch of Squad Designated Marksman Rifles left the HK-USA facility in Georgia, headed for the U.S. Army.

The platform, designated the Squad Designated Marksman Rifle (SDMR) in military service, is a variant of HK’s 7.62 mm NATO G28/HK417. The base guns are produced at HK’s factory at Oberndorf, Germany then shipped to the States where HK-USA workers in Columbus, Georgia install optics and accessories drawn from a dozen U.S.-based manufacturers.

The SDMR in all its glory, complete with HK German roll marks, offset backup sights, a Geissele mount, suppressor and Sig Tango6 optic. (Photo: HK)

More in my column at Guns.com. 

 

Army moves ahead with buying upto $33M worth of HK G38 sniper/marksman rifles

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The U.S. Army Contracting Command on Wednesday announced a contract award to Hecker & Koch worth over $33 million.

The Ashburn, Virginia-based company was awarded a $33.5 modification to contracts for the Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System and the Squad Designated Marksman Rifle. In a nutshell, the CSASS is a more precision rifle with a 3-20 power optic and match/sniper ammo while the SDMR is for use at the platoon-level with ball ammo and a 1-6x24mm optic.

The CSASS, classified by the Army as the M110A1 rifle, is a variant of the company’s G28 (HK241) platform chambered in 7.62 NATO. The rifle, which itself is a development of the HK417 series, was first green-lighted by Uncle in 2016.

The HK G28 variant used as the Army’s Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System, or M110A1. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

As its name program name would imply, the rifle is light, weighing in at 8.48-pounds sans optics and accessories. Its primary day optic is the Schmidt & Bender scope on a Geissele mount with accessories to include a suppressor and bipod.

I’ve handled them at trade shows, and they are really nice.

What’s not to love about an HK417, especially when it is set up as a DMR? (Photo: Chris Eger)

More in my column at Guns.com.

Army goes HK for new sniper rifle

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Das HK G28E im Cal. 7.62mmx51 Foto: © Tomas Moll

Das HK G28E im Cal. 7.62mmx51 Foto: © Tomas Moll

The modern U.S. Army’s flirtation with dedicated sniper rifles is now in about it’s 99th year, if you disregard the brief fling with the Sharps used by Hiram Berdan’s United States Sharpshooters during the Civil War. Over that time, Big Green kept the same more or less standard rifle in service for decades: The M1903 in both World Wars, the M1C/D  in Korea, the M21 in Vietnam (augmented by a few Winchester Model 70 and Remington 700 target guns pressed into sevice).

In the 1980s, the Army went with a supped up Remmy 700 heavy barrel, designated the M24, and has been using it for roughly the past 30~ years, being augmented by the remaining M21/DMRs and some new AR-10-based Knights Armarment M110 semi-autos in recent years.

Well, now it seems that is about to change as a $44 million contract was announced Friday to Heckler & Koch Defense Inc. for up to 3,673 Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System (CSASS) units along with spares, accessories and support. This works out to about $12,000 per rifle system, which sounds like a lot but if it includes optics, et. al may actually be a bargain.

The good folks over at The Firearm Blog talk about the HK in question– the G28E.

The CSASS program aimed to address issues of size and length with the original SASS program that was won by Knight’s Armament Company in 2005, resulting in the M110. The CSASS solicitation appears to combine the concept of a carbine-length 7.62mm semiautomatic support weapon adopted by the British Army and New Zealand Defence Forces with the optionally suppressed flexibility of the original M110 SASS weapon.

The G28E is based on Heckler & Koch’s G28 designated marksman’s rifle designed for the Bundeswehr, itself in turn based on the HK 417 7.62 caliber bigger brother to the HK 416. The G28E incorporates a large, lightweight octagonal KeyMod-like rail with seven sets of mounting positions for attachment of rail segments and accessories.

Now the Army currently has about 15,000 precision rifles of all types (M21/M110/M24) and just dropped some serious skrilla on 2,520 revamped .300 Win Mag caliber M24s, dubbed the M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle in 2014 so it’s doubtful the new HK rifle will make a clean sweep of the service’s needs, but I could see the lingering Vietnam-era M21 and its DMR’d M14 cousins finally being put to pasture while the M24s/2010s/110s head to Guard and Reserve units.

We shall see…