New Sniper Rifle for Army and Marines

U.S. Army and Marine Corps snipers soon will be armed with a new multi-caliber sniper rifle. Both services earmarked money in their proposed fiscal 2021 budgets to buy Barrett Firearms Manufacturing’s Multi-Role Adaptive Design Rifle (MRAD Mk22), a bolt-action weapon that can be converted to fire 7.62x51mm NATO, .300 Norma Magnum and .338 Norma Magnum ammunition. U.S. The rifle is designed to kill enemy personnel and pierce soft-skinned vehicles. The MRAD Mk22 will allow snipers to shoot out to 1,500 meters — 300 meters further than the Army’s M107 and M2010 rifles that it will replace. The MRAD will replace the Marine’s current Mk13 Mod 7 sniper rifle as well as all other bolt action sniper rifles according to Marine budget documents.

Following the U.S. Special Operations Command’s contract award of up to $49.9 million to Barrett in March 2019, the Army plans to spend about $10.1 million on MRAD rifles (known as the Mk22), according to service budget documents and Program Executive Office Soldier officials. The Marine Corps plans to spend about $4 million to buy 250 MRAD rifles in its fiscal 2021 budget request