Customise the Heckler & Koch HK416 Rifle for the U.S. Marines and you get the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR). Now what if you add a scope to the M27 IAR? You get the new M38 Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) for the USMC.
The M27 IAR is getting more uses for the Marine Corps, already replacing the M249 as a support weapon and now it gets a to be a DMR. The Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines tested the newly configured DMR at a live-fire exercise at Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina last 8 December 2017. According to Soldier Systems the optic used on the M38 DMR is identified the Leupold TS-30A2 Mark 4 MR/T 2.5-8x36mm with a tuned Mk262 77gr turret which was used for the Mk 12 Special Purpose Rifle and would probably the standard scope for the M28 DMR. It also uses the Harris Bipod like the M27 IAR.
Soldier Systems also have reported that the USMC have been planning to field the M27 IARs equipped with 3-9x scopes as DMRs last May 2017.
The use of the HK416 as a DMR is not entirely new. The Norwegian Army, which is one of the first to adopt the HK416 as a service rifle in the form of the HK416N also fields it in DMR form.
All photos taken by U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Michaela R. Gregory (DVIDS)