Marines Replace M249 SAW with M27 IAR (HK416)
The U.S. Marine Corps. has ordered $23.6 million worth of gas-piston M27 full-auto rifles from Heckler & Koch to replace aging M249 SAW machine guns. Designated the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR), the Marines’ new 11.62-lb weapon is a heavy-barrel variant of the highly successful Heckler & Koch HK416 used by military, law enforcement, and special operations units in the U.S. and throughout the world. The HK416 is basically an AR15 that HK “fixed” with a gas piston assembly and other tweaks to improve reliability, particularly during full-auto fire.
The M27 IAR replaces the heavier, M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) which has been used by the Marines in infantry squads since the mid-1980s in the automatic rifle role. Both weapons fire the 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge. The Marines plan to have one M27 IAR per four-man fire team, with three M27 IARs per squad, 28 per company and more than 4,000 across the entire Corps. The M27 IAR is already being used in combat in Afghanistan. CLICK HERE for M27 combat photos
The five-year, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract calls for possible delivery orders up to $23,600,000 for the production, delivery, and associated support of the Marines’ Infantry Automatic Rifle program. The Marine Corps approved the full production and fielding of the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle during the summer of 2011.
The M27 contract has drawn fire because critics say the M27 IAR is simply a “more reliable M16/M4″ that lacks key features required by any practical squad automatic weapon — belt-feeding, and interchangeable barrels. With belt-fed ammo and interchangeable barrels, an automatic weapon can produce large volumes of fire, over a sustained period, to pin down the enemy. An M27 operator must change box magazines every 30 rounds. On the other hand, the M27 IAR is about half the weight of the M249, and that seems to have been a key factor in the Marine Corps’ decision to replace the M249 SAW. Marine spokesman Major Joseph Plenzler declared: “The fielding of the IAR will significantly enhance the ability of our infantrymen to … reduce their fighting load and provide them a more ergonomic and accurate weapons system that can keep up during the assault.”
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Tags: Heckler & Koch, HK, HK 416, M27 IAR, Marine Corps, SAW 249, USMC
You are using the wrong weapon video. That is not the [HK built] M27 (IAR)
Editor: OK, Roger that. We thought this video showed the prototype M27, but apparently it was a candidate from another manufacturer. We’ve swapped in a video showing the HK IAR. Do you know if the HK 416-derived gun fires full auto from an open bolt. That was a major plus of the LWRC rifle featured in the “Future Weapons” video.
Ok, I’ll bite… what is the advantage in replacing the existing weapon? The H&K does not appear to provide anywhere near the sustained firepower of the SAW. Replacing one in four Marine’s weapon with one of these does not appear to provide any significant improvement in combat, as these guys would be pulling empty magazines at the same pace as the other three that were still using the M4’s…
Editor: Dave — you’re affirming what quite a few other observers are saying. One observer says this whole IAR project was simply a way for the USMC to get a better, more reliable assault rifle than the M4, which the Corps, apparently, is not particularly fond of. This way the Corps gets a bunch of piston-operated, heavy barrel ARs in each squad, with a much better MRBF (mean round between failure) rate than the M4. But one can argue that ANY rifle limited to a 30- or 40-round magazine with non-swappable barrels cannot perform the role of the M249 SAW. Perhaps the USMC felt the superiority of the IAR as a “room-clearer” was more important than the traditional infantry employment of a light machine gun. Look at the German’s use of the MG32 and MG40 in WWII to understand how a machine gun with a high rate of fire can be used effectively with squad flanking tactics.
They are going to use the Surefire 100 round mags with it. That puts it back on the same footing as the M249
Gas piston is a plus but for sustained fire a mag isn’t going to cut it and with the minus of not having a swapable barrel. The SAW in a sf role needs belted ammo, the rate of fire is so high that magazine springs could not keep up.
I took a look at the Surefire webpage and they seem to have thought the capacity issue through.
http://www.surefire.com/highcapacitymagazinesinfirefights
Sure looks ungainly, loading those in combat must be a real chore, let’s see that would be 20×5-round stripper clips… Perhaps they need another grunt (or perhaps a mule) to hump that load! I guess that is what the SAW gunners have to do now.
Editor re: MG32, MG40 – The German military used the MG34 and MG42 as the universal GPMG’s. I hope this was just a typo?
I carried a SAW for a number of years, it was no picnic. Butter, Butter, JAM. Couldn’t dump enough CLP on them to keep them running. As to the changeable barrels, if you need to change a barrel you’re doing something wrong. The ammo capacity is no worse off, even two hundred round drums the jam rate was often enough that this probably beats the snot out of the SAW due to it’s reliable feeding. Light weight and reliable, two things the SAW doesn’t have.
I wonder if something else might be going on here? In WW2 the germans referred to the Sturmgehwer Stg44 as a machine pistol during its early development to keep hitler out of the loop. Only when glowing battlefield reports reached hitler did the weapon get his blessing.
Perhaps the marine corps would really like to replace the M4 with something more reliable, but are blocked by some influential politicians with financial interest in the M4.
Makes sense to then introduce the weapon as a replacement for the M249, and then when glowing battlefield reports come back, push to have the weapon adopted universally.
They can easily fit the M27 IAR with a 100 round Beta-C drum magazine to provide the sustained firepower needed for the light machine gun role. I believe even with the Beta-C, it would still be much lighter than the M249 SAW. They can use the Beta-C as the standard issue magazine while still having the option of using STANAG magazines in an emergency. Heck, I always wondered why the British never used a 50 round drum magazine (like those available for AR-15 platform weapons) for their L86 instead of using STANAG as the standard issue magazine. Being a bullpup is no impediment for a drum magazine (as long as it is not too big and unwieldy). The Red Chinese use a drum magazine for their QBB-95 LSW.
You can put a 100 round beta magazine in the m27 but the saw us still a superior lmg. As an ar the m27 is top notch though.
you can bet your bottom dollar that the Marines have checked this out. The reason we have the m16 and the m4 is because of the airforce, they needed a like weapon to guard air planes and they thought the m-14 was to heavy. turn out the m16 was a peice of crap got alot of marines killed. I know I was there when they came out. They are better now, but not by much. The 416 is a better weapon. I own a MR556 and love it.
Semper Fi, MSGT RET 66-94