How accurate is the M14 EBR platform?

Any unit that deploys can write an ONS for anything they think they can use, such as "dazzlers", search wands, or megaphones.

The long range ambush tactics the bad guys use in Afghanistan dictate long distance engagements. There aren't enough M110s to give to every SDM (a rifle that at least looks cosmetically like an M16) and so there really was no other viable option but to issue M14s. Heck there aren't enough of any one system to really do the job.

But having a capability doesn't mean you will use it well. Soviet infantry doctrine gives one sniper per platoon (we have no US equivalent, and only Stryker companies have dedicated snipers) armed with an SVD. But having that capability didn't win the war in Afghanistan for the Soviets.

But that is the nature of evolving warfare. Twelve years ago the acronyms "SDM", "MRAP", or "IED" meant nothing to me. Now they are just part of the problem set I have to deal with.

Jimro
 
Jimro

The long range ambush tactics the bad guys use in Afghanistan dictate long distance engagements.
There aren't enough M110s to give to every SDM... so there really was no other viable option but to issue M14s.
Heck there aren't enough of any one system to really do the job.

I understand that M110s are very slow in coming... it's going to take a couple years for the Marines to replace their relatively small number of M39s with M110s.

TACOM has built over 5000 M14EBR-RI rifles and they have a supply of over 80K M14s that can be converted.
Jimro, would over 85,000 EBRs be enough to really do the job?
 
TACOM has built over 5000 M14EBR-RI rifles and they have a supply of over 80K M14s that can be converted.

TACOM built 5,000 rifles over the course of 2 years according to your article. So it isn't quite as simple as walking over to the armory and pulling out another 5,000 enhanced M14s.
 
Jimro, would over 85,000 EBRs be enough to really do the job?

No, 85,000 EBRs would not be enough to arm every SDM. At 2,500 a year that would take TACOM 34 years. Sure would be something if we haven't figured out a better SDM solution in 34 years.

1.5 million man Army, 1 soldier in 9 to be an SDM. 85,000x9=765,000 or about half of our total force. If you limited the SDM concept solely to "ground combat forces" then 85,000 becomes slightly more reasonable. But you have to have the rifle for that squad member to train on. I haven't seen an M14 on active duty stateside outside of Ranger school OPFOR.

But even if you did have the rifles, it still isn't an ideal solution. Different organizations have different concepts of how they want SDMs to train and operate.

Stryker guys love the M14 SDM solution because they ride to the battle in Strykers. Mech guys are just fine with an accurized M4 or M16 because the Bradley is the primary firepower in the system. Light guys like having the M14 systems in the armory "just in case" but there are no B4 slots in the light infantry companies to really run an SDM program (something the Stryker guys do have).

Hell, the Army even has two SDM schools on active duty, the Infantry School teaches an SDM course through the 29th Regiment, and the AMU puts on their own SDM course using accurized M16A4s. I don't know what the National Guard is doing, but each state probably has its own program.

I think that the real answer is to follow the Soviet doctrine and give each company 3 snipers like the Stryker guys have. This works out to be the equivalent of 1 sniper per platoon, but it allows you to have the institutional knowledge to keep an SDM program up and running. Still, I would like a rifle that didn't stand out so much over the standard issue rifle.

Jimro
 
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