The U.S. Department of Defense announced Wednesday that US-based Barrett Firearms was awarded a $49,977,196 contract for procurement of Multi-Role Adaptive Rifle/MK22 Advanced Sniper Rifles, spare parts, accessories, tools, and conversion kits. The estimated completion date is March 29, 2026.
As Israel Defense reported several months ago, Barrett received its first MK22 precision sniper rifle order from the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. At that time, the company said that the Multi-Role Adaptive Design (MRAD) MK22 rifles met all requirements for the Department of Defense contract for the Advanced Sniper Rifle. Since the contract was awarded in March 2019, the MK22 has completed all aspects of the Production Qualification Testing and Operational Testing phases. As a result, Barrett received the initial production order and deliveries commenced in January 2021.
The Army Recognition website noted that in 2019, the U.S. Special Operations Command awarded Barrett a $50,000,000 contract, ordering the Barrett MRAD chambered in .338 Norma Magnum for the Advanced Sniper Rifle project as the MK22 ASR. As part of their fiscal year 2021 budget requests, both the Army and Marine Corps included requests to adopt the MRAD as their primary sniper systems of choice. The Army wants to purchase 536 MRAD sniper systems for roughly $10.13 million, while the Marine Corps wants to purchase 250 of them under SOCOM’s ASR program for roughly $4 million to “replace all current bolt-action sniper rifles” currently used by the service. The MK22 ASR will replace the M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle, Barrett M107, and MK13 rifles, according to the report.
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