New Sniper Rifle for US Army

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A recent budget request by the US Army is considered a big win for the sniper rifle program compared to last year when the service requested no money for this program. The new Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System (CSASS) was selected by the army in 2016. Now it may finally get the funding.

In its fiscal 2019 budget request, the US Army asked for $46 million toward CSASS, a program designed to provide snipers with an alternative rifle for certain missions that don’t stick out to the enemy as a sniper weapon.

The M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System, or SASS, made by Knight’s Armament Company — the Army’s current semi-auto sniper rifle — is easier to recognize as it’s 46.5 inches with the suppressor, more than 13 inches longer than the M4.

The Army awarded Heckler & Koch a 2016 contract worth $44.5 million to build a variant of the G28 7.63mm, used extensively by the German Army in the Afghanistan War, as the service’s new CSASS. The contract will buy up to 3,643 of these rifles, reports military.com.

In addition, Army leaders have pledged to arm infantry squads with a new 7.62mm Squad Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) this year that is capable of penetrating body armor plates used by countries such as Russia and China.

The Army wants to ensure that each combat arms squad is equipped with a new 7.62mm SDM.

The G28 was developed as a DMR. While traditional snipers generally rely on a manually-actuated bolt-action rifle and operate in small teams, designated marksmen (DMs), with their semi-automatic weapons, form an integral part of infantry-level fireteams, according to militaryfactory.com.  Their role is to provide the infantry squad successive, accurate fire.