A little Saturday gun stuff...
The M27 IAR is less than half the weight of the M249 and allows the automatic rifleman to carry fewer rounds because of its improved accuracy. With a lighter load to carry, enemy combatants will now face a more lethal and mobile Marine with better firepower to boot, allowing the Marine to move faster and engage his enemy in record time.
The Corps plans to purchase more than four thousand M27s – replacing nearly all the existing Squad Automatic Weapons. By the end of 2013, the Marine Corps intends to supply M27s to every infantry and light armored reconnaissance battalion in the Corps.
Marines: When it positively, absolutely has to be destroyed overnight.
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I don't get it. In the army infantry the function of the SAW was suppression fire, putting lots of rounds down range to allow other units to maneuver. In the four man fire team, the belt fed SAW was what you could count on to keep the base of fire going while riflemen went through mags. That looks like a piston-driven rifle with a bipod, which is great, but it's still a rifle. The SAW, pain in the ass though it is, is a light machine gun. I don't doubt they know what they're doing, but I still don't get it.
ReplyDeleteI guess they figured the reduction in weight and increase in accuracy was worth the trade off.
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