U.S. Special Operations Command Won\'t Give Up on These Two Machine Guns

Task and Purpose

Security, United States

U.S. especial Operations order plans above continuing to equip operators with FN America’s Mk 46 spec-ops designed M249 Squad Automatic Weapon variant and the beefed-up Mk 48 “super SAW,” doubling down above the two lightweight machine guns adopted almost 15 years ago between a chief overhaul of the military’s little wepon arsenal.

U.S. especial Operations order Won't desert above These Two machine Guns

All of this is to speak that SOCOM’s super SAW can eat picked up some extra bite. backward all, the new trade does include upgrades and engineering help from FN America, which force mean that SOCOM plans above rejiggering the super SAW though the next big fight.

(This first appeared final year.)

U.S. especial Operations order plans above continuing to equip operators with FN America’s Mk 46 spec-ops designed M249 Squad Automatic Weapon variant and the beefed-up Mk 48 “super SAW,” doubling down above the two lightweight machine guns adopted almost 15 years ago between a chief overhaul of the military’s little wepon arsenal.

The preserve of Defense recently awarded FN America, a South Carolina-based wepon manufacturer, a $13.45 million trade to equip both the 5.56mm Mk 46 and 7.62mm Mk 48 flash machine guns to SOCOM, The Firearm Blog reports. The trade represents an amplify above SOCOM’s $11.5 million commerce at 2010 though the two weapons, which FN especially designed though Naval especial warfare starting uphold at 2004.

The Mk 46 and Mk 48, though they eclipse their SAW cousin at range, firepower, and ergonomics, eat their hold unique lay of problems. The Mk 48 at special “had a trend to lose accuracy because of how much the weapon used to vibrate during sustained firing,” The warfare region observed at May. “There were either problems with overheating and the gas system filling quickly with carbon, the latter likely chief to jamming unless operators thoroughly cleaned the weapon regularly.”

But it’s worthy noting that the new trade with FN comes impartial a little months backward SOCOM officials unveiled plans though a so-called “assault machine gun” chambered at 6.5mm Creedmoor, a smaller cartridge than the standard 7.62mm ammo that rest more effective though long-range release uphold than the 5.56mm M249 SAW ammo. Here are the details of SOCOM’s new intermediate caliber ammo, per The warfare Zone:

In testing at 2017, especial operators shooting rifles modified to fire 6.5mm Creedmoor were twice though responsible to hit their targets compared those using govern guns at the existing 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge. especial Operations order either evaluated .260 Remington and collected news above the action of full three types of ammunition at the FN Mk 20 Mod 0 Sniper uphold Rifle, the Knight’s wepon company M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System (SASS), and Heckler and Koch M110A1 concise Semi-Automatic Sniper System (CSASS).

The testing either showed that the 6.5mm versions of the weapons eat 40 percent greater mount and less recoil than their 7.62mm counterparts. The nearly was 30 percent less susceptible to wind drift, though well, making it more precise at those distances.

That transition, though initially hinted at on an April 2017 Military era report, either appears to agree with the U.S. Army’s long-running contribute though an intermediate caliber though its hold M249 SAW and M4 carbine replacement at the Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle, albeit chambered at the slightly-larger 6.8mm, though task & aim reported at May. if the army is whipping together the NGSAR with an intermediate caliber to patch warfighters’ so-called “range gap,” then it follows that perhaps SOCOM force pursue a new “assault machine gun” also and abandon the tried-and-true MK 46/Mk 48 duo behind, right?

Maybe not: SOCOM’s satisfy to reinvest at its Mk 48 arsenal suggests that perhaps weapons planners eat managed to recognize a combination of existing upgrades to the beloved “super SAW” to adapt the intermediate caliber — a satisfy that, though The warfare region pointed out, force indeed heighten the efficiency of the occasionally buggy Mk 48 or “improve the country with marginal effort.” Indeed, another briefing glide from SOCOM's ammo update showed the development of an "assault machine gun" chambered at 6.5mm that appears to exhibition the Mk 48.