The USMC Wants Integrally Suppressed Rifles
The US Marine Corps may soon be calling on the firearm industry for proposals for integrally suppressed firearms. The Marine Corps Times report that Colonel Mike Manning, the program manager for the Marine Corps Systems Command’s Ground Combat Element Systems program, discussed the Corps’ future for suppressors during a panel at the annual Modern Day Marine military expo at Quantico.
He confirmed that the Corps will soon be drafting a request for industry (RFP) proposals. Manning hinted that “there’s a couple [auppressor systems] out there right now that integrate with the weapons themselves. That’s really where we want to be. Integrate the suppressor into the barrel,”
Gunner Christian Wade discusses suppressors:
The Corps believes that suppressors improve the command and control of units during firefights, allow for tactical innovation and increase a squad’s ability to operate stealthily
Manning declined to go into detail on what the RFI might call for or just how many integrally suppressed Rifles the Corps may want. The 2nd Marine Division has been testing commercially available suppressors at the battalion level for some time and the Corps seems to be interested in refining their deployment.
“The advantages to that integration are immediate,” Manning explained, “quit throwing it on the end so that now we have a 14-and-a-half inch barrel or a 16-inch barrel. We just added four or five inches to that barrel.”
What configuration the new integral system might take remains to be seen. Marine infantrymen are currently equipped with the M4 and the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle. An integrally suppressed upper receiver kit for these rifles seems the most likely option.
Managing Editor: TheFirearmBlog.com & Overt Defense.com. Matt is a British historian specialising in small arms development and military history. He has written several books and for a variety of publications in both the US and UK. Matt is also runs The Armourer's Bench, a video series on historically significant small arms. Here on TFB he covers product and current military small arms news. Reach Matt at: matt@thefirearmblog.com
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marines will want integrally suppressed rifles until they find out that the armory folks will become 10x more stickler about cleaning them
I'm not really sure the Marine in the video actually knows what suppressors are for. He seems to think that they reduce noise for the sake of making it easier for soldiers to communicate and do their jobs more efficiently. I'm not sure where he gets that kind of nonsense, silencers are designed for and good for only one thing and that is the ability to commit gun related crimes in total silence thus making it impossible to be caught by law enforcement. I know this because I see it reported in the news on TV all the time, they couldn't say it if it wasn't true you know.