#Army

The M992 40mm IR cartridge, 5.56mm M855A1 & M240L were all winners of this years Army Greatest Inventions competition. Most of you will be familiar with the M240L, the lightweight version of the 7.62mm M240, and the 5.56mm M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round, the new environment-friendly 5.56mm round, which I have blogged about many times in the past. I had not heard of the M992 40mm IR cartridge before.

In June the US Army began upgrading their .50 cal M2 heavy machine guns to the slightly improved M2A1 variant. The M2A1 allows the operator to replace the barrel without have adjust headspace and timing. Army.mil reports …

From the press release …

Kit Up reports that the engineers at the Army’s Picatinny Arsenal will be testing eight LSAT Machine Guns and 50,000 rounds of the LSAT caseless ammunition. From Kit Up blog …

Strategy Page reports …

The US Army is looking to purchase an additional 70,000 – 100,000 M4A1 Carbines.

The United States Army Special Operations Command will start removing the FN SCAR MK16 (5.56mm) form their inventory at the end of this year, according to a document obtained by Military.com. By 2013 they plan to have completely divested themselves of the carbine. The FN SCAR will continue to be used and later this year the Army plans on procuring a 5.56mm conversion kit for the MK17.

Have you ever purchased a plastic gun part and felt like you were charged far more than it cost to manufacture? Maybe you were. The Army has purchased 25,000 SOPMOD stocks for just $12.28 a piece. This is the same AR-15 stock sold by The Lewis Machine & Tactical for $200 – $300! How did the Army get such a good price? They bypassed LMT and went with another manufacturer [PDF Link], B5 Systems, Inc of Xenia, OH.

Kit Up has an amusing story about Army Black Hawk pilot, and former infantryman, who decided that his M4 and M9 did not offer his enough firepower, so he swapped them for a M249 Para (with custom mods) and a M203 (with FD-203 standalone conversion).

Kit Up reports that the US Army would like hyper-burst capability (firing multiple rounds at incredibly high rate of fire) for the next generation carbine. It is not an official requirement yet for the potential M4 replacement, but could be in the future. Matt Cox reports …

Army Times reports …

They say “beware of the man with one gun, he knows how to use it”. I say “beware of Sgt. Jonathan Sweetnan, he looks like he knows how to use both of them”.

The German Army, like the rest of NATO is seems, is looking for a Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR). Once selected it will be given the designation G27. REMOV wrote on MP.net that the HK417 will not be the G27 as was rumored …

PEO Solider is giving powered rail systems a serious look. Gear Scout reports …

Remington Defense has been awarded the contract to upgrade up to 3,600 of the Amry’s M24 Sniper Weapon Systems (SWS) to what will be classified as the M24E1.