This entry was posted on Thursday, July 1st, 2010 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Current Events, Military, Military Equipment, Navy, Special Ops Troops, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, USMC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
The Special Operations Command SOCOM which is the parent agency for all Spec Ops military ring customers from all branches of service has decided to scrap the continued fielding of the MK-16 Assault Rifle. This came as a major surprise because the MK=16 was being fielded specifically for SOCOM. It was the first rifle ever specifically designed for Special Operations Troops to use in battle.
I am not quite sure why the rifle was scrapped but the reason that SOCOM gives is that it dosen’t offer enough of an advantage over the carbines that they use at the present time. I guess it makes sense budget wise not to spend money on something that will not give you a notable advantage over what you presently use.
SOCOM has already purchased a number of the custom made rifles and will discontinue buying them. They may also require the units using the rifles now to turn them in.
The stopping power of the 5.56 round may be the issue but I don’t really know. I would imagine that they would have the rifles which are in use turned back in because to attempt to keep them would cause a number of different logistics problems.
SOCOM oversees Special Operations units which include Air Force and Marine units, Navy SEALS, and Army Special Forces Ring customers.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.