The Squad Advanced Marksman Rifle ( SAM-R ) is a semi-automatic designated marksman rifle developed and used by the United States Marine Corps . It gave users the capability to provide fire in support of a rifle squad, providing precision fire in support of an assault, and aid in observation and adjusting of supporting arms.
7-638: The SAM-R was retired by the U.S. military in the mid-2010s and thus is no longer in service, having been replaced by the M27 IAR . The Squad Advanced Marksman and his weapon, the Squad Advanced Marksman Rifle, was the product of extensive experimentation by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) of the addition of a designated marksman to a Marine squad. The concept of a designated marksman
14-630: The Knight's Armament Company Free-Floating Rail Adapter System) and an M16A1 trigger assembly (semi and full-auto functioning). A number of day optics were used initially, which included Hensoldt Blitz, Leupold CQ/T, ACOG , Leupold TS-30A1 and ultimately the Leupold TS-30A2. The test night optic was the AN/PVS-17B, apparently now being fielded with USMC combat units though the AN/PVS-22
21-704: The M16 rifle in order to maintain a certain level of commonality in both weapon and ammunition. There was some talk of adopting a weapon such along the same lines as the Mk 11 Mod 0 , but instead that transferred over to a possible replacement for USMC personnel now using the Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR), a variant of the M14 . The SAM-Rs were assembled by the Precision Weapons Section of
28-676: The SAM-R used by the Marines of II MEF. They were in use by the USMC. The British Army reportedly used a small number. After a lengthy period of debate over the role of accuracy vs. suppressive fire in the Marines, they adopted a new doctrine and weapon in the more accurate M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle for their service rifle in September 2018 and it will replace most of the M4 Carbine for
35-710: The Weapons Training Battalion at Marine Corps Base Quantico . For the War on Terrorism , the approximately 100 assembled SAM-Rs were sent to the 22nd , 24th , and 26th Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU) of II Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF), which is located at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Squad Advanced Marksmen of I MEF , which is based at Camp Pendleton, California, made do with M16A4s with KAC M5 RAS forearms and TA31F ACOGs . Some SAM-Rs are nicknamed "West Coast SAM-Rs", though they are simply M16A4s with optics and bipods and not an 'accurized' rifle like
42-533: The infantry. Certain M27s are selected for accuracy; when provided with scopes and suppressors they are designated as the M38 Designated Marksman Rifle . The rifles are distributed one per squad. The original test weapon was a modified M16A2 rifle with a free-floated 1:7 stainless steel match grade heavy barrel, a "Mil-Std-1913 modular rail system" (this most likely implies the use of
49-452: Was already in use by the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (Anti-Terrorism) and Marine Corps Security Force Regiment . In exercises, a Marine with a scoped rifle and additional training provided immense benefit to small units. An optic provides information-gathering abilities as well as aiding aiming of support weapons such as machine guns and mortars . The armorers at the MCWL decided to use
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