In remarks this week during the Future Force Capabilities Conference presented by the National Defense Industrial Association in Austin, Texas, Marine Corps civilian Mr Chris Woodburn, Deputy, Maneuver Branch, Marine Corps Capabilities Development Directorate, mentioned that the Marines desired to add the capability to fire .300 Win Mag to the new Mk22 Advanced Sniper Rifle.
Currently beginning fielding, the Mk22 is manufactured by Barrett Firearms and offers the capability to fire 7.62 NATO and long with the new cartridges: XM1162 .338 Norma Magnum (NM) Armor Piercing (AP) (DODIC: AC32) and XM1163 .300 Norma Magnum (NM) Ball (DODIC: AC33). It is a joint service project being adopted by the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and USSOCOM.
The Marine Corps is seeing great success with their current Mk13 Mod7 chambered in .300 WM. Since they have a reliable supply of .300 WM ammunition and their snipers are familiar with the round’s performance characteristics, they want to to add the capability to the Mk22.
Can someone explain to me why they are fielding a weapons system in a caliber other than the one they want? I get that the Mk 22 isn’t just for USMC but get the caliber you want BEFORE you spend dollars fielding the system to your component.
I’m a bit confused by this as well. When the USMC announced that they were adopting the Mk22, they had said that they were buying them with a one time purchase of .300WM barrels added to the Mk22 kits, to support their current ammunition inventory.
Perhaps this was an odd way of them saying that they’ll primarily use the Mk22 in .300WM (and not .300NM), and therefore need additional barrels?
This is probably just them making good on the initial claim that they planned to buy the 300WN kits.
Cause soldiers don’t issue equipment they get issued equipment. The 300 NM & 338NM are much better caliber velocity, kinetic energy, and accuracy on the MK22 platform. It has more to do with the availability of high-quality ammunition for training and operational use. The ammo shortage has affected even military contract because the high-end stuff is not mass produced and its pretty much COTIS.