The Marine Corps' Commandant has decided, based on the results of testing and further field evaluation by using units, to recommend ending the limited test and evaluation fielding for the M27 IAR and going straight to full-fielding of rifles to each infantry battalion and its LAR battalions.Originally Posted by Kiwigrunt
The Gunner community is surprisingly very much behind the fielding and employment of the weapon. I'm surprised because the grizzled veterans are typically the most vocal critics of the move to a lightweight automatic rifle as a replacement for the SAW (to be precise, SAWs will remain in a infantry company's T/E for some time to come, in the qty of at least six)
A pair of recent articles from the Marine Corps Gazette have touched on this topic again.
Save the Infantryman's Firepower
and
The M249 Light Machine Gun in the Automatic Rifle Role
My article from the June Gazette is not adrift on the web yet, but I am curious to see the responses. Of note, the Gazette does not present coffee mugs to writers any longer, but instead Quill pens are mailed out. They are a lot more expensive form of compensation than a mug, but the cartridge is blue ink...(wry grin)
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