The Firearm Blog

The Army Times reports that the H&K developed M320 will being replacing the M203 in February next year.

The Army plans to begin fielding the first of 71,600 new replacement launchers in February for a cost of about $3,500 each, Audette said. Fielding of the M320 will likely be completed by 2015, Audette said.

..

Each M320 will come with a laser range finder and a sophisticated sight that even lets soldiers know if they aren’t holding the launcher right.

M320 with stock and laser range finder sighting system.

The unit weights 3.57 - 3.89 lbs depending on what rifle it is being mounted on.The stock pictured above adds an extra lb bringing the weight up to 4.8 lbs.

Benefits over the M230 are:

- The barrel swings out allowing larger rounds than the M203. Useful for less than lethal rounds.

- Laser range finder and new electronic sight system which also indicates if the launcher is being held incorrectly.

- Double action trigger

M320 mounted under M4.

Murdoc uncovered a story which mentions that the US Army still has the WWII era M3 “grease gun” submachine gun in service for select units such as vehicle crews, engineers and radio operators.

M3. Photo from Wikipedia.

Interesting if true.

There is a discussion about it here.

MilitaryTimes has listed the contenders for the M4 replacement. They are:

AR-15 Platform (Direct Gas Impingement):

* Colt ACC Monolithic
* Troy Industries M7A1 (can use either DI or piston system)
* Sabre Defense Industries M5
* S&W MP-4
* Precision Reflex PRI (Upper receiver only. Attaches to M4 lower).

AR-15 Platform (Piston):

* LWRC International M6A4 IAR
* H&K 416
* Knight’s Armament SR-15
* Superior Arms S-15
* Barrett REC7 PDW
* Patriot Ordnance P416

Not based on the AR platform:

* Bushmaster/Magpul ACR
* Sig Sauer 556 Classic
* Robinson Armament XCR
* FN SCAR

Sig 556 Classic

I am not sure if this list is complete. The Beretta ARX-160 Carbine is conspicuously missing.

I saw this Хроники безумного Макса, the blog of Max Popenker who also runs the famous world.guns.ru.

The inscription says “U.S Army Special Forces Commemorative(?) Mac 10″.

Click to expand

I actually think it looks pretty classy, like that engraved MP5.

In case you are wondering, I cannot read Russian but I do subscribe to various overseas foreign language blogs.

Marine Corps Times has an interesting article on the IAR competition. It seems the Army is not interested in a lightweight automatic rifle.

That’s why the Army, which also uses the M249, has ruled out a soldier version of the Marine IAR.

“We are not considering adopting an auto rifle for the infantry squad,” said Col. Robert Radcliffe, director of the Infantry Center’s Directorate of Combat Developments at Fort Benning, Ga.

…

The plan is to buy 4,100 IARs and reduce the number of SAWs in the Corps from 10,000 to 8,000, Cantwell said.

“We are still going to maintain SAWs in the company,” he said. “Only 2,000 SAWs will be replaced. The reminder will be kept as an organizational weapon for when commanders need them.”

Remington will be upgrading the 3000 M24 rifles during 2009 at a cost of $3 million. I was quite surprised to hear this after all the noise about bolt action rifles not being good enough and that semi-automatic was the only way to go. The M24 Sniper Weapons System (SWS) is based on the Remington 700 rifle and chambers the 7.62×51mm NATO.

M-24 Sniper Weapons systems have been fielded to the U.S. armed services since 1987. Remington has been maintaining these weapons in Ilion, New York, and will be responsible for M-24 upgrades in the future. Remington’s proposal to upgrade the M-24 sniper rifle would save the federal government nearly $6 million dollars.

No word if the systems 10×42 Leupold Ultra M3A scope will be upgraded to something fancier and more expensive.

Hat Tip: Tactical Wire

The U.S. Army and Special Operations Command are stepping up efforts to procure a lighter, modernized .50-caliber machine gun more easily transported than the standard 85-pound M2.

The goal is not to replace the M2, a combat fixture for 70 years, but to augment the inventory with a .50-caliber weapon that brings the same firepower at less than half the weight, Army officials said here at the Feb. 27-29 winter convention of the Association of the U.S. Army. Early models of the Light Weight .50-caliber (LW50) are expected to be delivered this year.

More info at Murdoc Online

Following the recent purchase of 10,000 M9 pistols by the US Army and Navy, Beretta has announced a new multi-year contact to supply the Army with another 25,403 M9 pistols.

From the press release

Beretta has just announced that it has been awarded a multi-year contract by the U.S. Army to deliver M9 pistols to servicemen and women as part of the U.S. Government commitment to ensure the operational safety and readiness of U.S. Armed Services worldwide.

The contract is for 25,403 M9 pistols with deliveries starting in June 2008 and continuing until February 2010. The U.S. Army also reserves the right to purchase additional M9 pistols as needed to meet their needs. All of these M9 pistols will continue to be manufactured at the Beretta U.S.A. facility located in Accokeek, Maryland.

According the Guns Magazine the US Army and Navy have purchased 10,576 M9 pistols (I do wonder how they come up with these exact numbers).

Beretta USA received purchase orders from the US Army and US Navy for a total of 10,576 M9 pistols (5,969 for the Army, 4,607 for the Navy). The purchase orders were issued against a multi-year contract between Beretta and the US Army, which serves as executive purchasing agent of the M9 pistol for all branches of the US Armed Forces.

So the M9 is not going anywhere in the near future.

“The Beretta M9 pistol remains the most reliable and well-tested handgun in the US military inventory, with tests resulting in an average of only one malfunction every 20,500 rounds fired.”

Apart from the special forces it is the only pistol, isn’t it?

According to wikipedia the last big order was in 2006 for 70,000 pistols.

I have been getting quite a lot of visits from people searching google for M16 / M4 / AR-15 manuals. So I decided to post some of them.
US Army M16 / M4 operators manual

This covers Disassembly, Cleaning, Reassembly, Magazine, Operation and Ammunition and more.

Click here to download it.

Bushmaster: Operating and Safety Instruction Manual.

Uses the diagrams from the US Army manual and covers the same content but is not as detailed.

Click here to download it.

Olympic Arms: OWNER’S MANUAL FOR PCR/AR RIFLES

Covers the same content as the above manuals.

Click here to download it.