Naturally, if word gets out that the Interim Combat Service Rifle effort has stopped midstream, folks are going to wonder about other 7.62mm programs, especially CSASS.
Despite a contract award in early 2016 to H&K for a G28 variant, the US Army has yet to field any M110A1 Compact Semi Auto Sniper Systems. So far, the program has no funding. It’s not dead; it just doesn’t have money to buy anything.
However, a directed requirement for 6069 G28 rifles, which are essentially M110A1s minus the optic, is still rumored to be moving forward, albeit rather slowly. These rifles will be fitted with a different optic and used in the Squad Designated Marksman role. While the Army will not have a widespread capacity to bring 7.62 hate, the DMR guns and existing M110s, built by Knight’s Armament Co, offer a limited capability.
However, CSASS is still alive and well with the US Navy and US Air Force, who are reportedly still on track to field several thousand of the rifle system.
UPDATE
Within an hour of this post being published, The Army Contracting Command published an award on FedBizOpps entitled, “Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System Engineering Change Proposal”.
The U.S. Army Contracting Command – New Jersey (ACC-NJ), on behalf of the Project Manager Soldier Weapons (PM-SW), awarded a modification to incorporate Engineering Change Proposals to the Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System.
If I were a betting man, that ECP turns the CSASS into a DMR by eliminating the Optic and Suppressor as well as lengthening the Barrel, which results aggregately in lowering the price and producing the desired variant of the G28 specified in the Directed Requirement. If it includes a full-auto function, ICSR could still happen as an ECPed CSASS and offer the Army the 7.62 H&K G28, it wants.
We will update you as we learn the details of this ECP.
