The Marine Corps will begin replacing its current M249 squad automatic rifle with the new M27 Infantry Rifle. The rifle has been strenuously tested and it will be issued to about five Battalion sized units which will be deploying soon. The rifle will be tested in combat and improved upon as necessary. This testing will seek input from marines to determine how to make it more troop friendly.
The main thing that the corps is concerned about is the fact that the rifle is magazine fed rather than belt fed. What this translates into is that our marine corps ring customers who use it will have to stop firing more often to insert magazines. The belt fed rifle has 200 rounds per belt versus the 30 round magazine of the newer rifle. The newer automatic weapon is much lighter than the one which they currently use. The new weight is 7.9 pounds versus 17 pounds. Thats a major difference when you have to carry this rifle around all day. Personally I think that the lighter weight alone more than offsets the small loss of firepower that will be experienced. The new rifle is also much more accurate which I see as the icing on the cake. You won’t need a lot more bullets to do the same job.
The biggest thing is to let Marines use it in the field, and see what they have to say about it. Once the Corps determines that it is useful it will be issued to other units.
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