There is no requirement in the contract for the IAR to be built in the US. As the timeline is pretty tight, the guns will have to be built at HK GmbH as the US production is far from ready to build a MIL SPEC rifle. Would be a bad decision to make the gun at any other HK facility than HK GmbH. Their record for QA and lot testing is well established - they are the true experts on HK's, especially the 416. Why risk it?
This is a very good thing for the Marines and every other service/country that is watching this. This is the US Marine Corps! Remember that the Marines were expected to consider seriously what SOCOM decided on SCAR. A full fielding decision on SCAR is expected this month. It is anyones guess what will happen at Tampa. This confirms the wisdom of the selection of the HK416 by Tier 1 SOF units for which they have taken a bunch of crap over the years and begs the question why not just upgrade or replace the SOCOM M4's with COTS HK416's? Mother Army is looking to upgrade the M4 and conduct a new carbine competition. This "award" (downselect actually) raises the state of the science for 5.56mm rifles by a long margin, and just in time maybe.
Nice to see the troops getting the very best for a change. The Marines conducted the first "Field Experiment" on IAR back in the late 1990's wherein HK competed with the MG36 at that time and did well - pre HK416. The HK416 provides a substanially improved sustained rate of fire, improved accuracy, higher cook off rate, improved service life and decreased life cycle costs and likely it was not the most expensive candidate. What is amazing is that the Plain Jane standard production HK416 (okay a bayonet stud was added) as submittted (the lightest candidate also!) beat out the heavier and purpose built candiate from FN and Colt. Guess this sheds some light on the rumor control that said the HK416 was dead and it was having many problems with US users. Wrong. Hard to beat HK made hammer forged barrels and the op rod gas system. Now they just need a good reliable 75-90 round drum magazine like the G8 mag.
The first 5.56mm SOST ammo gets fielded in the Corps soon as well. If the reported performance of the 7.62mm SOST in Afghanistan is any indicator Marines armed with HK416 IAR's firing SOST ammo will gain a new found respect from our enemies there. Lighter. More manuverable. More "lethal" and at greater ranges and against protected targets? What's not to like about that?!
Things are looking up (finally). Congratulations to the folks at Quantico and to HK.
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