So a couple of you have asked about the status of the FNH-USA-built Mk20 Sniper Support Rifle in last week's post and I thought I'd put out what I know and don't know (which is a lot).
First off, I've pinged SOCOM for an official update, but I also wanted to share with you a slide I obtained that shows Army Special Operations Command's plan for their sniper rifle inventory. All I'm doing at this point is reading tea leaves, but here goes.
According to the slide, USASOC plans to divest itself of the Mk11 (7.62)-Mk12 (5.56) rifles in their inventory beginning in the last quarter if this fiscal year (which is now). They will replace them with the Mk17 SCAR Heavy and the Mk20 SSR through Q3 of 2017.
Now, what's confusing to me is that in paralell to the USASOC initiatives on the SCAR and SSR, the Army is also running its own M110 upgrade and is replacing all Mk11s with M110s. If the M4 is good enough for USASOC to cancel its Mk16 purchasing plans, then why isn't the M110 and the newly modified M110 A1 good enough? Honest question, not being critical at all.
(Check it out after the jump!)
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