Ohio Ordnance Works has released additional details on their new Recoil Enhanced Automatic Rifle (REAPR), a lightweight beltfed medium machine gun chambered in .338 Norma Mag but swappable to 7.62 NATO.
The REAPR weighs 26.8 lbs and has an overall length of 51.7″ with stock collapsed and 54.5″ with the stock extended. However, the stock can also be folded and in that case, it’s just 44.25″ in length. It can be configured for right or left hand feed and features a patented sliding feed tray and cover which means you can use optics with a larger footprint.
The operating system is a roller delayed mechanism and the 24.5″ barrel can be quickly changed without the need to depress a button or lever.
Above and below, you can see how it can be carried in a backpack and quickly configured for firing.
Developed initially to answer a United States Special Operations Command requirement for a Lightweight Medium Machine Gun, it will compete with True Velocity and SIG SAUER in the next few months. The Marine Corps is also interested in the capability and the US Army and several NATO countries are monitoring the program.
That is very cool. 338NM and the ability to drop it back to the ubiquitous 7.62 in a well thought out package is awesome. I think the gunners out there who have to hike this thing will appreciate being able to chuck it in a pack when the situation permits. Will keep watching this closely.
While it may be dismounted and used on dismounted operations, I believe this will mostly be mounted on vehicles and rotor wing aircraft.
Any plans to release this as a semi auto only (civilian legal) down the track? Any 5.56 plans?
MG42 vibe is strong with this one!
Hahaha, the first thing my son said was ” Why does that remind me of an MG42?” It’s a svelte design for sure!
Any plans for civilian sales?
Interesting design. I like that it has selectable fire. I like that they thought about the feed tray and optics. I like that it looks like it has an adjustable cheek rest on the stock. And that it’s suppressed.
What I don’t see is a QD point, M-LOK slot, or other method of placing a sling on it on the buttstock. At 26+ lb.; a sling is critical. And looping it around the buttstock seems like a step backwards.
I’m concerned when the guy demonstrating putting the quick-change said ” put your thumb on the barrel to find the keying feature.” If this thing is going to be issued with two barrels, that would be a pretty signficant no-go; ESPECIALLY since it’s suppressed. Suppressed machine guns run a bit hotter I’d imagine, using my thumb to find the way to index the barrel sounds like a way to loose a digit.
Looks like it could interface with tripods nicely.
A lot of requirements rank higher on the scale of importance in my
opinion than the functionality of packing it into a backpack like you’re Bruce Willis in ‘The Jackal’. If it’s designed to be mounted: Demonstrate how it interfaces with a turret mount. If it’s supposed to be used dismounted; Demonstrate ease of carry. Which is debatable since it looks even more front-heavy than an M240B and no planned rear sling interface. Does it have a drum interface for dismounted carry? If so, what does it look like?
It’ll be interesting to see how it compares to Sig’s offering, which is an XM250 on steroids.
Ray, wouldn’t you only be trying to either assemble a cold gun from stowed, or change out a hot barrel for a cold one if you’re using your thumb to find the index point in the dark?
RayMiller,,
On the video at about the 5:50 mark, the front and rear sling attachment points are identified. And, as Mike said, the “indexing” of the barrel with the gunners’ thumb is only relevant when lining up a fresh (cold) barrel to insert properly into the receiver. Not necessary – nor is it recommended in the video – when unlocking and removing a hot barrel.
Lots of interesting features on tis gun. Well thought out, designed, and executed. I am impressed.
TLB
Terry,
Thanks, I didn’t catch the sling points in the video. I’ll have to re-watch it. As for the barrel change, it only would apply if you were going to issue it with two barrels. Doing crew drills with that barrel change mechanism in the dismounted role is my concern. I’ve seen instances during sustained rates of fire with M240’s having to swap a warm to hot barrel back on the to get the one that’s gowing like las vegas off the gun. That’s only to amplify with a suppressed maching gun I’d imagine.
If the requirements from SOCOM aren’t to have two barrels, or it’s not to be used like GMPG’s are today, then you’re absolutely correct that the indexing is not needed. Just worrying about if it isn’t is all.
I can tell that a lot of thought went into it, but you can’t think of everything. And what I’m talking about may (likely) be more GPF-centric than SOF. And since it’s a SOF program, it’s likely this would work beautifully.
So I looked at the video, and if you blink (or have your phone on silent with close captioning on) you can miss that he called out the sling points… Which are for hooks, which is probably why I missed it. Not sure why they chose that when there are a lot of good QD sling swivels on the market. If the reason is it’s not primarily supposed to be carried dismounted, and is supposed to be put in a pintle mount, then okay. But it still feels like a lost opportunity to address the integration of something better. than the hooks that have been on M60’s/M240’s since Vietnam.
I like that it has selectable rate of fire (semi/’full semi-automatic’) and a well thought out feedtray. I like that it is suppressed. I like that it’s the same weight as the M240B. And I like that it has M-LOK.
What concerns me is that I have to use my thumb to index the barrel (per the demonstration). That sounds like a good way to burn my thumb off if the requirement is it has to quick-change barrels like an M240. The fact that can break it down like I’m Bruce Willis in ‘The Jackal’ is nice, but not the best way to highlight its strengths IMHO.
I’m more interested in how it interfaces with a turret mount, an M192 tripod, and how it’s carried. This thing is looking very barrel-heavy and does not look like it balances very well if I have to carry it without a sling.
The stock looks like it has some cheek rise potentially, which is a nice feature considering that eveybody has a different facial structure. It also looks like it can have the charging handle set up on either side potentially, which would be a nice feature. It’ll be interesting to see hw this compares with Sig’s offering, which looks like an XM250 on steroids.
The scene where they loaded rounds onto the feed tray…were those .338 rounds with EPR type projectiles?
Noticed what seems to be an AP tip, as well. Cool.
They sure do look like EPR projectiles which is interesting because, as far as I am aware, the Army owns the patent on that projectile design. If they are .338 EPR rounds, that, to me, would signal a significant investment from the Army in this program, even if it is SOF/USMC specific at this time. Perhaps that is part of SSD mentioning that this program is the future.
Unless I’m mistaken or reading into something that isn’t there.
Before they get too far down the road, update the .338 Norma Mag cartridge case with a modern 30° shoulder instead of 41°. Has benefits and, no, does NOT hurt feeding reliability one bit.