Archive for the ‘Guns’ Category

A U.S. Marine with Bravo Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion heads to a Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft after executing a narcotics and weapons raid in the Khash Rod district of Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 14, 2012, in support of Operation Lion's Den. The raid was part of an effort to disrupt the selling and distribution of contraband throughout Afghanistan. (DoD photo by Cpl. Marcus Kuiper, U.S. Marine Corps/Released)

The Marine has what appears to be an M110 SASS.

M110 SASS Sally

Marines fighting the war on drugs.

Remington M4A1 Carbine Contact & Press Release

USMC Issues Production Delivery Order to HK

Heckler & Koch was awarded a competitive contract to produce the U.S. Marine Corps’ new Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR). The formal “Full Rate Production” announcement by the Marines caps a competition that began more than three years ago.

Designated the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, the lightweight, 11.62 pounds weapon with ancillary equipment, is a variant of the highly successful Heckler & Koch HK416 used by military, law enforcement, and special operations units in the U.S. and throughout the world.

For more discussion of the IAR and how it will be used, see The Infantry Automatic Rifle: Closing the last 5 yards in the Marine Corps Gazette.

Army demonstrates new LSAT lightweight machine gun

Lightweight Small Arms Technology over at SoldierGeek:

The LSAT program has been run out of the Armaments Reserach, Development, and Engineering Center (ARDEC) at Picatinny Arsenal for several years. It’s original goal was to produce a lightweight machine gun aimed at the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon role, by redesigning both weapon and ammunition from the ground up. The program was later restructured to look at lightweight small arms technology applications in multiple roles, to include carbines, using the lightweight LMG as the technology demonstrator.

Go check it out. SoldierGeek was involved in some early work on the project and has some good personal thoughts. And if you don’t have him bookmarked or in your RSS feed, fix that problem right now.

Here’s an overview of the LSAT:

Lightweight Small Arms Technology (LSAT)

The Army sets its sights on its next carbine

Service leaders detailed what they want — and how they plan to get it — in a June 30 request for proposal. It seeks “an assault weapon that will provide accuracy, lethality, minimized visual and aural signature and survivability enhancements to all Army formations. … This weapon will possess the capability, in offensive and defensive operations, to destroy or neutralize the adversary and their capabilities, at any time and in any place.”

The RfP allows competitors to submit only one weapon for consideration. There are no caliber restrictions.

But before all you 6.8 or 6.5 fans get hot and bothered

Although many modern carbines are multicaliber weapons, they will compete with one caliber. And if a weapon’s caliber is not 5.56mm or 7.62mm, the manufacturer must provide 234,000 rounds to cover all tests.

And Murdoc’s guess is that any round other than 5.56 or 7.62 will count as a mark against the gun even if the round outperforms the standards.

Phase I of the competition will focus on technical aspects, the builder’s production capability, and cost.

No, Murdoc is not anywhere near the big news story out of West Michigan tonight: Michigan Police Surround Suspected Gunman Who Allegedly Killed 7 in Shooting Spree

Crazy story. Apparently this longtime felon killed a kid, five women, and man. A couple of other shootouts and a wild chase through downtown and the wrong way up I-196 ended when he holed up in an apartment with two hostages.

Now it seems he’s snorting something and threatening to kill himself.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

You cannot make this crap up

A Soldier aims an XM25 weapon system at Aberdeen Test Center, Md.

A reader sent Murdoc this heads up: ATK wins $65M EMD contract for XM25 Airburst Weapon

The Army has quietly awarded Alliant TechSystems (ATK) a $65M contract for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) of the Counter Defilade Target Engagement System, better know as the XM25 Individual Airburst Weapons System (IAWS), according to a contract press release published today.

ATK has the airburst ammunition contract for XM25; Heckler & Koch (HK), a German company, has the weapon development contract so I’d expect a similar award shortly for the weapon itself (unless HK is a sub-contractor to ATK, in which case this would be the only contract). An EMD contract award means the weapon has passed “Milestone B” and is formally ready for final design and development testing, which if successful is followed by a low rate production decision or “Milestone C”.

Murdoc remains hopeful about the XM25, but he’s not terribly optimistic. At least this contract means the end of $1,000-a-shot handloaded ammunition.

Last week, MO pointed out a Military.com story about how the Army wants more XM25 grenade guns and that they’ve nick-named it the ‘Punisher.’

Kit Up! learned, however, that while the XM-25 is impressive, the weapon had been fired a few more than 50 times in less than 10 engagements and had chalked up only two suspected kills.

Though not a bad start, it’s certainly not a sample size large enough to guarantee success.

The XM-25 has fired 55 rounds in nine firefights between Dec. 3 and January 12, when the formal Forward Operational Assessment ended. Officials say the weapon “disrupted” two insurgent attacks against an observation post, destroying one PKM machine gun position in one of those attacks. That is where the ”usually our engagements last for 15-20 minutes. With the XM-25 they’re over in a few minutes” line came from.

The XM-25 also “destroyed” four ambush sites during engagements on foot patrols or movements to contact. In one instance, the 25mm HE round exploded on a PKM gunner and he was either wounded and fled or scared and fled, but dropped his machine gun, which Soldiers later recovered.

Though the details aren’t given, it sounds as if it could have been a “direct hit” and yet the target was able to flee. That certainly won’t do anything to convince those who wonder if the 25mm rounds are powerful enough. It could be a case where the explosions simply surprised and frightened the target into running off. If the lethality of the XM25 isn’t there, it won’t take long for the enemy to learn that its bark is a lot worse than its bite.

Of course, maybe it wasn’t anything like a “direct hit” and these concerns are not valid.

Go read the rest at Kit Up!