The Firearm Blog

A couple of days ago I blogged about H&K winning the USMC's IAR competition. There has been much confusion regarding the IAR competition since then.

Dan Lamothe, who broke the news, updated his The Marine Times article and added that it now appears that the H&K IAR has not officially won but is the frontrunner ...

With several months of testing ahead, the decision isn’t considered final, but it makes the H&K model the clear front-runner in the competition.

...

The Corps will now put H&K IAR through five months of testing beginning in January and taking place in locations ranging from Panama to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center and Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in California, Eby said. The Corps has ordered 24 H&K IARs for testing, said Capt. Geraldine Care

Rob Curtis who blogs at GearScout (also part of the Military Times) wrote that the DoD appear to done a downselect, rather than awarding H&K an outright win ...

From what we understand, this is actually a downselect to just one system as opposed to a contract win

Dan send me an email regarding my previous comments on the supposed weight of the H&K IAR, which is almost identical to the standard HK416 carbine. He sent me the spec document which H&K provided him with. It does indeed list the weight as just 7.9 lbs!

Daniel E. Watters wrote that he suspects that the Marine command may have been framing the IAR as a partial M249 replacement but in reality they may have just wanted a piston operated full-auto carbine. By procuring what is sold as a new class of weapon they could sidestep the inter-service politics and bureaucracy ...

The weird thing is that the HK416 IAR is roughly the same weight as the M16A4, if not lighter when the latter is fitted with the M5 ARS. I'm certain that someone in Congress will ultimately ask what the HK416 can do that their issue M16A4 retrofitted with full-auto trigger groups can't.

Like others have mentioned, I can't help but wonder if the USMC didn't game the IAR requirements so that a basic carbine could win instead of a HBAR. The idea would be to gradually increase the number of IAR issued so that they could later justify standardizing on it to replace not just the infantry squad's M249, but their M16A4 and M4 as well. By framing it as a service-specific supplement to their M249, they skirted the need to argue with the other service branches over a set of joint requirements.

As for winning the contract, everyone needs to remember that Colt, FN, and HK were already awarded Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contracts for their IAR last year. An IDIQ contract guarantees the awardee that they will have a specific minimum of items ordered, with the possibility of additional orders up to a specific maximum. There is no guarantee that more than the stated minimum will ever be ordered. I've long suspected that contracting officers have been purposefully making multiple awards of IDIQ contracts prior to a final downselect in order to head off potential award protests by the disgruntled losers. It is my understanding that by accepting their IDIQ award, the contractor only has grounds to protest if the guaranteed minimum has not ordered before the end of the contract. They cannot protest that they did not receive additional orders in excess of the guaranteed minimum.

Make of all this information as you will. All I know is that DoD procurement was never designed to be understood by a mere mortal such as myself!

After a year of speculation and commentary from pundits, myself included, the Marine Times reports that the H&K has won the competition and that their entry will enter production next year ...

The Marine Corps has selected the infantry automatic rifle made by Heckler & Koch as the weapon that will replace the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon in infantry fire teams, a senior service official told Marine Corps Times on Wednesday.

The H&K IAR “was truly the best in the class on multiple levels and will finally allow the billet of automatic rifleman to be performed as intended without the disruption of the squad integrity that the M249 created,” Chief Warrant Officer 5 Jeffrey Eby, the Corps’ senior gunner, said in an e-mail.

Despite what is said in the above quotation, I do not think that the SAW is being replaced outright. The Marine Times has at times reported that the SAW would be replaced with the IAR, and at other times reported that it would augment the IAR, not replace it ...

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.”

The H&K entry was a modified version of their HK416 piston-operated AR-15 rifle. Unlike the Colt and FN entries, it is said to fire only from a closed bolt. Given the lack of an open-bolt fire mode I had presumed it was the least likely choice for an automatic rifle.

Presumably it is fitted with a heavy barrel, like H&K's previous, and commercially unsuccessful, attempt at the automatic rifle: the MG36. The Marine Corps has been reporting the weight of the 16.5" barreled H&K IAR as being 7.9 lbs. This is not possible as a standard 16.5" barreled Hk416 weights in at 7.84 lbs. I also think that the photo of the H&K IAR shown by the Military Times is that of a standard HK416.

HK416 standard rifle (not IAR)

I have contacted H&K to see if they are willing to publicly acknowledge if they have won. If they do, I will endeavor to get the specs of the new weapon.

UPDATE: The Marines Times has an updated article here.

Many thanks to Mark and Matt for sending me the news.

Military Times (via. SNAFU!) reports ... (emphasis mine)

James Conway had questioned how the IAR will fit into fire teams, but said that his concern was “answered in short order.” Smith declined to elaborate, and Maj. David Nevers, a spokesman for Conway, said the commandant was unavailable for comment.

At the Modern Day Marine exposition held at Quantico in October, FN Herstal displayed a high-capacity magazine for its IAR variant that can hold 100 to 150 rounds. Another con­tractor, Armatac Industries, has approached the Corps about a 150-round magazine it makes and says is compatible with each of the finalists’ weapons.

Early in the evaluation process for the IAR, the Corps’ requirement called for the weapon to use 100-round magazines. That was eventually elimi­nated in favor of using the same 30-round maga­zines, as Marine officials sought to cut weight from the SAW’s replacement.

Translation: Ultra-high capacity magazines have poor reliability and so we are pretending that they are in fact too heavy for our Marines to carry.

I was not aware that the requirement had been dropped. Not having a ultra-high capacity magazine would seem to significantly decrease the utility of the rifle, insofar as it being a replacement for the SAW.

150 round AR CL-MAG

Many thanks to Solomon for the link.

I missed this article when it was published last month, but luckily a reader alerted me to it. The Marine Times reported last month (Sep 21, 2009) that the result of the Infantry AUtomatic Rifle competition will be announced this month!

The Marine Corps plans to announce next month a heavily anticipated plan for the infantry automatic rifle, which is expected to replace the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon in Marine fire teams.

“We’re close to having a decision,” said Maj. John Smith, the weapon’s project officer at Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va. “I’m on schedule to have a decision on the program to move forward. Maybe within three weeks or so, there will be a lot more information.”

Testing is complete, Smith told Marine Corps Times on Wednesday, and plans are underway to make sure logistics, training and maintenance of the weapon are handled.

The article is not entirely accurate. The Corps will not be replacing the SAW with the IAR, but rather adding the IAR to their weapons mix.

I have covered the Infantry Automatic Rifle many times on the blog.

Many thanks to Walt for telling me about the article.

A leaked US Army report about the Battle of Wanat criticizes the reliability of the M4. On July 13, 2008 200 Taliban fighters attacked 48 US and 24 Afghan troops. Outnumbered 2.7 to 1 the M4 Carbines, which the troops were carrying, could not function reliably under the sustained fire they were required to put downrange. Fox News reports:

The platoon-sized unit of U.S. soldiers and about two dozen Afghan troops was shooting back with such intensity the barrels on their weapons turned white hot. The high rate of fire appears to have put a number of weapons out of commission, even though the guns are tested and built to operate in extreme conditions.

...

"My weapon was overheating,” McKaig said, according to Cubbison’s report. "I had shot about 12 magazines by this point already and it had only been about a half hour or so into the fight. I couldn’t charge my weapon and put another round in because it was too hot, so I got mad and threw my weapon down."

Snowflakes In Hell, via Michael Bane's blog, correctly points out that assault rifles are not machine guns:

No assault rifle is going to stand up to sustained automatic fire. They aren’t machine guns, and even a machine gun needs to have its barrel changed out if it’s been firing a lot.

The M4 has a very short 14.5" barrel and a relatively lightweight barrel profile. This allows the barrel to heat up much faster than a longer and heavier rifle or machine gun barrel. When the barrel of a closed-bolt gun gets very hot, cook-offs,when a round is ignited from the heat in the chamber, become a significant problem ... not to mention the fact that a soldier cannot fire a gun that is to hot to hold!

The Marines have been criticized by many for their plans to introduce an Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR) into the mix of weapons issued to their troops. The IAR is not intended to replace the SAW but would be deployed alongside it, giving some riflemen a light weight weapon that can sustain automatic fire.

FN IAR. Switches from closed-bolt to open-bolt when automatically when barrel temperature increases.

The Army would do well to look into the concept.

At the end of last year the Marines announced they were awarding contracts for the development of IAR prototypes to Colt, H&K and FN. Since then I have heard nothing about the IAR.

There are discussions about the M4 failure at Wanat over at Snowflakes In Hell, via Michael Bane's blog and SaysUncle.

Many thanks to Jerry, Caedis, Lee and Lance for emailing me links about this story.

The FN IAR is based on the SCAR. It has a rate of fire of 650 RPM and weights in at 10.4 lbs.

FN IAR. Click to expand.

One very interesting features is that it switches automatically from closed bolt to open bolt depending on the chamber temperature. From FNH-USA:

Today FN offers the new Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR), a unique, highly-adaptable, modular selective fire weapon system that fills the roles of both individual battle rifle and squad automatic weapon in one light, compact package. The magazine-fed FN IAR is capable of firing from a closed bolt in both semi-automatic and fully-automatic modes, yet automatically transitions into open-bolt operation in semi-automatic or fully-automatic before reaching cook-off temperature for a chambered cartridge.

I do not think the temperature switch would be electronic. Most likely there is a piece of metal that expands when heated and causes a switch from closed to open bolt.

Again, a bit thanks to Daniel Watters for pointing this out to me.

It looks like the Marines have narrowed down the search for the Infantry Automatic Rifle to four designs from three manufactures:

Colt was awarded two contracts worth up to $14 million apiece: M67854-09-D-1035 and M67854-09-D-1036.
FN was awarded one contract worth up to $27.9 million: M67854-09-D-1037.
HK was awarded one contract worth up to $23.6 million: M67854-09-D-1038.

I have covered on of the Colt IARs and the FN IAR. The HK IAR is apparently a heavy barreled HK416 with bipod and standard closed bolt operation.

The contracts represent the maximum potential amount the manufacture will receive if all 6500 IAR rifles are ordered from them.

According to HK_PDX each company will now supply 10 sample rifles for the final trial.

Once again it looks like the small guys have missed out.

A big thanks to Daniel E. Watters for the research he did for this post. He knows all the ins and outs of military contracts, something I am ignorant of.
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For a while I have been waiting for Colt to a announce a ultra-reliable ultra-high capacity magazine that will accompany the Colt Infantry Automatic Rifle. One of the requirements for the Marine IAR is a ultra-high capacity magazine.

At the Pakistan IDEAS-2008 expo an M16/M203 was on display with a MWG 90 Rounder High Capacity Magazine, sitting directly above a Colt IAR poster (Photo by skybolt @ Defence.pk).

The tan colored weapon on the poster is the Colt IAR. Click to expand.

I think it would be safe to assume that Colt is going with the MWG 90.

MWG 90 Rounder High Capacity Magazine

If you look closely at the first image it appears that the MWG 90 magazine is attached to the M16 upper receiver. Something is attached to the receiver which extends towards the magazine. Anyone know what this is? It does not appear visible on MWG promotional photos, such as this one:

Colt may have customized the MWG 90 to increase reliability/durability.

Over the past few months Colt has been unveiling a variety of new AR-15 firearms. If a replacement for the M16 or M4 is chosen they want it to be a Colt. To ensure this designed a range of weapons that should cover all bases. David @ Defense Review has been relentlessly covering the new firearms.

Many of the improvements Colt have developed have been applied to all these guns, I won’t list them all, click the links to read the full details.

Colt Sub-Compact Weapon (SCW)

A 5.56mm 10.3″ barreled sub-carbine/PDW featuring the new Colt side-folding stock. It is able to use an upgraded gas impingement system or the Colt Piston System (CPS)

Side Folding Stock. Photo by SMGLee.

Colt ACC-M (Advanced Colt Carbine-Monolithic)

This is basically an upgraded M4. It features many small improvements over the M4A1 and Colt’s new monolithic rail system. If it was adopted it I think it would probably be named the M4A2.

Colt Advanced Piston Carbine (APC)

David calls this the HK416 killer. It utilizes the Colt Articulating-Link Piston (ALP) system.

Colt Advanced Hybrid Carbine (AHC)

This carbine features a hybrid gas impingement and gas piston system. I am very interested to see how that works.

Colt Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR)

I covered this a few weeks ago on the blog. It is a light machine gun and Colt’s entry into the Marine Infantry Automatic Rifle competition.

Colt IAR. Photo by SMGLee

I have previously discussed the Ultimax 100 Mk4. This is the latest iteration of the Ultimax 100 design and is being entered into the IAR competition by General Dynamics, although it designed by Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK).

Photos by SMGLee. Click to expand:

Quick Change Barrel

I like the design of the ambidextrous fire selector.

Compared to the Mk4 the Mk5 takes unmodified STANAG (M16) magazine, has quad rails and a bipod/foregrip rather than a separate bipod and foregrip.

I am not sure if the Ultimax 100 Mk4 100 round drum magazine will be made compatible with the Mk5. The Mk4 took modified STANAG magazines.

Ultimax 100 Mk 4


Ultimax 100 Mk 5

UPDATE: Defense Review has more info.

The Colt IAR is Colt’s entry in the Marine IAR competition for a lightweight automatic rifle to replace the SAW in certain situations. It is an interesting weapon.

Photos by SMGLee. Click to expand

Under the barrel you can see a hefty heatsink. This is used to prevent cook-offs (when the primer of a chambered round is ignited by a hot chamber). It weights 9.5 lbs and has a 16″ barrel.

It looks like the barrel may be be changed by simply removing the bolt you can see just in front of the magazine well.

Surprisingly the rifle/machine gun does not use a gas piston and uses the AR-15/M16 direct gas impingement system.

The above photo does show a Magpul PMAG but the Marines have specified that the IAR must be compatible with 30 USGI magazines, so it is unlikely the military will be adopting PMAGs, even in a limited role with the IAR.

Other IAR entries can operate with either an open bolt, in automatic fire, or closed bolt in semi automatic mode. This allows the accuracy benefits of a closed bolt with the heat reduction and reduced chance of a cook off of a closed bolt. I am not sure if this weapon has this feature.

Colt already have a lightweight automatic rifle, the Colt Automatic Rifle (CAR), which itself may meet the Marines requirements. I do not know if the Colt IAR has anything in common with the CAR, other than the shared AR-15 heritage.

Colt Automatic Rifle

UPDATE: Defense Review has more info.

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.”