Courtesy of Tactical Life
The U.S. Army Contracting Command has issued a request for information—on behalf of Product Manager Individual Weapons—for a new Interim Combat Service Rifle chambered in 7.62x51mm.
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We’ve been hearing about the Army’s 7.62 rifle needs for a couple of months now. According to Soldier Systems, it first appeared that the service might “leverage” its M110A1 Compact Semi Automatic Sniper System (CSASS) program and just get more Heckler & Koch G28s—that’s what the Army is buying as part of its requirement for 6,069 SDM-Rs—but using the CSASS as an Interim Combat Service Rifle wasn’t feasible for a number of different reasons. Thus, this request for information from industry has materialized.
The Army’s 7.62 Interim Combat Service Rifle requirement was borne out of a need for defeating enemies out to 600m, but Soldier Systems posits that Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee late last week is now the driving force behind the requirement. During his testimony, Gen. Milley said the Army had developed a 7.62 round that could pierce 5.56mm-resistant body armor. The Interim Combat Service Rifle would fire that round, Soldier Systems says.
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Photo courtesy of Senior Airman Grovert Fuentes-Contreras