SOCOM Wants 6.5mm Sniper Weapon for Longer-Range Kills
18 May 2020 Military.com | By Matthew Cox
U.S. Special Operations Command will wait for the Army's 6.8mm rifle and automatic rifle, but it's moving forward to adopt a new sniper support weapon chambered in the longer-range 6.5mm Creedmoor round.
If all goes well with the Army's 6.8mm Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) effort, special-ops weapons officials plan to field both variants to units such as the 75th Ranger Regiment after the service begins its planned fielding in fiscal 2023.
Program Executive Officer Special Operations Forces Warrior officials said recently that plans for the 6.5mm Creedmoor lightweight machine gun have been put on hold to see whether the NGSW can fill that role, but "we are pressing forward" with the sniper variant of the Mid-Range Gas Gun, or MRGG, chambered in 6.5mm Creedmoor, Col. Joel Babbitt, of PEO SOF Warrior, told defense reporters last week.
"The Next Gen Squad Weapons are not sniper weapons, and the 6.5mm Creedmoor really fits that sniper support role," Babbitt said recently at the National Defense Industrial Association's vSOFIC 2020 industry conference. "We are replacing our 7.62x51mm sniper support weapons, which have a maximum effective range of 700 to 800 meters, with 6.5mm Creedmoor sniper support weapons that will give us a maximum effective range of around 1,200 meters."
SOCOM intends to release a request for proposal to industry for 6.5mm Creedmoor ammunition in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year and hopes to award a contract in the first quarter of fiscal 2021, according to a PEO SOF Warrior slide presentation.
The request for proposals for the sniper 6.5mm Creedmoor MRGG is also expected to be released this fiscal year, but program officials don't plan on awarding a contract until the end of fiscal 2022, according to the presentation.
In 2019, SOCOM adopted Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc.'s Multi-Role Adaptive Design Rifle, or MRAD, a bolt-action weapon that can be converted to fire 7.62x51mm NATO, .300 Norma Magnum and .338 Norma Magnum ammunition.
The Army plans to buy the MRAD Mk22 sometime in fiscal 2021 to replace the .50 caliber M107 sniper rifle and M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle in .300 Winchester Magnum.
The Marine Corps also plans to replace its Mk13 Mod 7 sniper rifle, chambered for .300 Winchester Magnum, with the Mk22 MRAD.
"All that the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by our forefathers, should be preserved, and that the government, as originally organized, should be administered in purity and truth." – Robert E. Lee
Both are great rounds. I went with the .260, mostly because 7mm-08 brass is just too easy to resize for it. Case capacity is about the same (a grain or so more in the .260, iirc). Mine shoots stupid accurate (Shilen bull barrel on a Savage small shank action that I "built").
Maybe the only real advantage of the Creedmoor is the ability to more properly seat really long bullets (VLD's and the like).
The DIPCHIT ADD, after a morning of drinking:
You despair, repeatedly, constantly! daily basis? A despair ninny. Sack up, despire ninny.
Quit giving in inch by inch then looking back to lament the mile behind ya and wonder how to preserve those few feet left in front of ya. They'll never stop until they're stopped. That's a fact.
I have shot both rounds and think either one would make an accurate long range option for a man sized target. I'm sure someone will be by shortly to say I'm gay though for saying the Creedmore has any merit
"Hey jackass, get your government off my freedom." MOLON LABE
The Creed wants to be a 6.5-06 when it grows up! Jerry
Or the 6.5-06's big brother "Holmes", the 6.5-280AI.
It does everything a 6.5 PRC does but with a .473" boltface. Yes, it requires a long action, but it also has a longer neck to reduce throat erosion.
Redneck, here in the 'Fire built one for me before the PRC became common.
Those long, sleek .264 dia. bullets sure buck the wind better than anything available in the .308 Win.!
Ed
"Not in an open forum, where truth has less value than opinions, where all opinions are equally welcome regardless of their origins, rationale, inanity, or truth, where opinions are neither of equal value nor decisive." Ken Howell
So if you shoot a guy with a 308 and 1200 yards the bullet bounces off?
P
I thought everyone knew that!?!
Same reason the military never adopted the .270 Win..
Ed
"Not in an open forum, where truth has less value than opinions, where all opinions are equally welcome regardless of their origins, rationale, inanity, or truth, where opinions are neither of equal value nor decisive." Ken Howell
There was a reason the 30-06 was chosen over 100 years ago, when do you suppose that will be figured out and a smaller lighter cartridge that does the same thing be discovered? Can was say 308? naaaa, that was to easy.
