Late last week, USSOCOM issued a solicitation to industry for an Advanced Sniper Rifle. According to the Indistry Day announcement issued on 21 November, 2017, ASR is a modular, multi-caliber bolt action sniper rifle capable of engagements to beyond 1,500 m. The rifle will be chambered in 7.62×51 mm NATO, .300 Norma Magnum, and .338 Norma Magnum with caliber conversions occurring at the user level. The program is also a total small business set aside.
Product Samples (PS) are due by 2:00 PM EST 09 July 2018, while proposals are due by 2:00 PM EST 27 August 2018. We understand that the government is requesting three samples from each vendor.
Details of the requirement sensitive, with access is limited to those actually bidding on the solicitation. Get full details here.
300 & 338 Norma magnum?? Am I missing something?
Nope, that’s been public knowledge for some time.
Wasn’t there a release a few months back about USSOCOM selecting 6.5CM over 300 NM?
No
SSD any idea who might be submitting proposals or what mfg’s might partake?
In thier first Precision Rifle Solicitation SOCOM chose the Remington Defense precision sniper rifle. A decent design EXCEPT that Cadex, the Canadian partner/developer, made the forearm tube too large in diameter requiring the Picatinny rail be mounted WAY too high on the receiver. This then raises the scope above the bore too much both making any tiny cant much worse for affecting windage misses as well as causing the soldier to raise the cheek piece too high in relation to the butt pad placement. Overall, a serious design flaw.
MY CHOICE is the BARRET MRAD. This rifle was in the running during the first solicitation and is being re-submitted for this second solicitation. I see the MRAD solving several problems, such as having a polymer bolt sleeve to reduce the need for bolt raceway lubrication, an easily removable trigger group and a single magazine size with cardridge-specific inserts for the other cartridges SOCOM requires (.300 Win mag, 7.63 x 51 NATO for ex.) since the solicitation, as before, requires barrel, bolt head and magazine swaps to accomodate these cartridges.
NOTE: With the possibility of the Big Army and NATO moving to the .300 Norma magnum for our “medium” machine gun we could use that cartridge to replace the .300 Win. mag. although this MG ammo would be useable in a precision sniper rifle only “in extremis” because machine gun rounds would not have nearly the accuracy standards of the MATCH ammo used in sniper rifles.
The sooner the Big Army and NATO step up and make the needed changes for ballistic “overmatch” visa vis Combloc ammo the sooner we will know how to chamber alternative barrels for the newest generation of sniper rifles. HOPEFULLY chambering for the 7.62 NATO round will no longer need to be a consideration as it is (again, hopefully) phased out.