The Scar-H will become the backbone of the regiment, with its
7.62mm and a twenty round clip and the L variant will replace the
M4 carbine and the M16 series weapons which are outdated.
About 600 members of the 75th Ranger Regiment will soon take the
Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle into battle.
The 600 SCARs are the first of 1,800 that U.S. Special
Operations Command began fielding in early April, SOCom spokeswoman
Air Force Maj. Denise Boyd told Army Times.
SOCom chose the SCAR system — which consists of the 5.56mm MK16
and the 7.62mm MK17 — to replace weapons including the 5.56mm M4A1
carbine, made by Colt Defense LLC.
The command selected FN Herstal to develop SCAR in 2004 after
holding a competition to find a reliable, modular weapon system for
its elite forces.
The SCAR has a short-stroke, gas-piston operating system. The
upper receiver is aluminum and houses a free-floating barrel for
improved accuracy. The lower receiver is polymer to help reduce
weight. Both versions can be equipped with different barrel lengths
to suit missions ranging from close-quarter fights to long-range
shooting.
Operators can chose a 10-inch, 14-inch or 18-inch barrel for the
MK16 and a 13-inch, 16-inch or 20-inch barrel for the heavier MK17.
Each of these can be changed out by the shooter in minutes, FN
officials say. The MK16 uses a 30-round magazine; the MK17 uses a
20-rounder. Eighty percent of the parts are common to both the
light and heavy versions to reduce long-term maintenance costs, FN
officials say.
The SCAR also includes the MK13 40mm grenade launcher, designed
to fit on both the MK16 and MK17 or fire in the stand-alone
mode.
Like the M4A1, both versions of the SCAR can fire on full
automatic. The conventional Army’s M4 carbine uses a three-round
burst instead of full auto.
In addition to the M4A1, the SCAR system is intended to
replace:
• The MK18 close quarter battle rifle, similar to the M4A1 but
equipped with a 10.5-inch barrel.
• The MK11 special purpose rifle, chambered in 7.62mm.
• The MK12 special purpose rifle, chambered in 5.56mm.
• The M14 rifle, chambered in 7.62mm.
SOCom and FN officials do not talk about the cost of SCAR, but
the Nov. 5, 2004, initial award for the contract was $634,390.
Special operations units from all services will receive the SCAR,
but it’s unclear when that will happen, Boyd said; commanders are
determining how many they will need.
“The intent is to field to operational elements at the beginning
of their training cycle and to run the weapons through an entire
work-up and deployment in order to determine weapon mix, barrel
mix, total number of weapons required,” Boyd said.
This should be interesting since the SCAR is now fielded in Iraq
and yet remains to see how it will perform in battles