Marine Corps Will Likely Adopt Army 5.56 Rifle Round, General Says

Thomas D'Arcy McGee

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The M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round (Photo Credit: U.S. Army Photo)

Marine Corps Will Likely Adopt Army 5.56 Rifle Round, General Says

Posted By: Hope Hodge Seck June 6, 2017


After repeated urgings from Congress to move to a common rifle round with the Army, Marine Corps officials told lawmakers Tuesday that they’re getting close to being able to do so.

The Marine Corps continues to use M855 ammo for their M16A4 and M4 5.56mm service rifles, instead of the M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round the Army uses for its rifles.

The problem, Marine officials have said, is that the newer round causes problems with the Marines’ M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, with tests indicating use of the round with the IAR results in reliability and durability issues.

But the Marines recently took a step that indicates the service is becoming more comfortable with the Army round. Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Corps had sent the Army round to Helmand province, Afghanistan with a 300-Marine advisory element that deployed in April.

“The good news with that round … specifically the Army 855A1, is much better at penetrating armor,” Walsh said. “So that’s a good reason to go with that.”

Walsh said the Marines are also looking at the possibility of going with a U.S. Special Operations Command round, the MK 318, which offers better accuracy than the M855 round. The Marine Corps has used the SOCOM round in various capacities since officials scrapped plans to field the M855A1 round in late 2009.

Testing of the M55A1 round at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland was expanded to include the M27 and M16A4 rifles last March, Military.com reported in December. And that testing effort is now expected to wrap up next month, Brig. Gen. Joseph Shrader, commander of Marine Corps Systems Command, told the panel.

The testing examines performance, stopping power, effect on the durability of the weapons, and the impact of the flatter trajectory of the M855A1 round compared to the M855, which may require adjustments to Marine Corps range training and safety measures.

“Those four areas are what we’re looking at for testing to inform us to make a decision for how we go forward,” he said.

Maintaining separate caches of rifle ammunition for the Army and Marine Corps engenders waste and inefficiency, as lawmakers have repeatedly complained to the services. In the 2017 defense budget bill, Congress once again pushed for a common round, asking the secretary of defense to produce a report explaining why the different rounds were still being used.

But that may not be the case for much longer.

“We’re working through reliability things in testing, but we will make some adjustments from that, and I think in the end our Marines will have a much better capability when we’re done with it,” Walsh said.
 
The MK 318 Mod 0 and Mod 1 is a better round.
It's already there and fully developed, it's incredibly effective, it's already being used. It's the solution to the under-powered, bad terminal ballistics of the M855.
Better accuracy, better terminal ballistics out to full rifle length barrel distances, better penetration and all out of a short M4 barrel.
Why in gods name do they always want to re-invent the wheel in the US DOD?
There is definitely some heavy politics and huge egos driving wedges between the Air, Navy, Army, Marine and SOF elements in the USA....
 
The MK 318 Mod 0 and Mod 1 is a better round.
It's already there and fully developed, it's incredibly effective, it's already being used. It's the solution to the under-powered, bad terminal ballistics of the M855.
Better accuracy, better terminal ballistics out to full rifle length barrel distances, better penetration and all out of a short M4 barrel.
Why in gods name do they always want to re-invent the wheel in the US DOD?
There is definitely some heavy politics and huge egos driving wedges between the Air, Navy, Army, Marine and SOF elements in the USA....

This is a logistics and standardization efficiency exercise not performance and ballistics.
 
I am not quite sure I want to shoot M855A1 out of a rifle I pay for myself, but the combined steel and barrier penetration looks pretty impressive.

The MK31X SOT rounds are not good GP round, because they don't do as well against metal targets and soft armour.

I wonder if they have lowered the pressure and the velocity since when it was first introduced, to reduce beating on the weapons.
 
Isn't the accuracy of that Enhanced Performance round somewhat lacking? I seem to recall reading - back when the US Army introduced it - that it's accuracy was around 5 to 6 MOA.

The US Marines still put major emphasis on its members being able to hit what they shoot at. "Every Marine is a Rifleman first".......
 
Isn't the accuracy of that Enhanced Performance round somewhat lacking? I seem to recall reading - back when the US Army introduced it - that it's accuracy was around 5 to 6 MOA.

The US Marines still put major emphasis on its members being able to hit what they shoot at. "Every Marine is a Rifleman first".......

Most of the problems came around when it was first introduced back 2012/13. Apparently it is more accurate than the M855 now and the US Army + Socom have been using it without complaints.

This thing is pretty impressive. It makes a lot of steel and Poly Level 3+ special threat armour designed to stop M855 obsolete. The only thing that can stop it seems to be a good old slab of heavy Level 4 ceramic. The terminal ballistic performance is pretty consistent too and comparable to MK262.

It is supposed to be a hot load so it can match the ballistics of M855, and hence the beating on the weapons. It also has exposed steel tip, so it may have some impact on the feed ramp of weapons as well as the feeding angle that is optimized for M855 bullet profile. L
 
What is the pressure like? higher and more wear?
Does it fit a regular magazine?

Is this a round to be wary of if found on the civy side?
 
77gr OTM/TMK mk262 type is fine. The M855 A1 psi is to high. Its too close to magnetic partial test round in pressure! Bad idea it wears out guns so much faster.

Cost vs reward is too high.
 
The MK31X SOT rounds are not good GP round, because they don't do as well against metal targets and soft armour.

Not sure where that comes from.
I've personally seen it puncture an acetylene torch tank at 50 meters. It penetrated clean through and stretched the metal on the opposing side to the point of seeing tear holes at the base of the protrusion. In other words almost through both sides of 1" thick steel tank at 50 meters.
Conversely also testing 62gr C77 on the same target at same distance with the same rifle and nothing but a small dent in the tank. Just a small dime sized welt. I have not seen personally impact on body plates but I would hazard to guess it outperforms the C77/M855 in that aspect as well.
 
These M855A1 rounds are fast.

I chronoraghed some with a Labradar just this past Saturday and while the box says 3020 FPS they were actually running at 3100 FPS.

That's cookin.
 
77gr OTM/TMK mk262 type is fine. The M855 A1 psi is to high. Its too close to magnetic partial test round in pressure! Bad idea it wears out guns so much faster.

Cost vs reward is too high.

Really I just wish they went to the 77gr Jbo rd that series if ammo is stellar.
 
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