Last February 10, 2071, the US Marine Corps sent a Request for Information (RFI M67854-17-I-1218) for manufacturers that can meet the demand of producing 11,000 M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles (IAR). This further solidifies the reports that the Marines are looking into replacing the M4 with the M27 IAR as the standard issue rifle.
Last November 2016, Military.com reported that the M27 IAR was issued to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines rather the M4 for pre-deployment exercises to experiment with the rifle as the mainstay rifle for the Marines. Officially, the M27 IAR is used as a support weapon for the Marine infantry, replacing the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) in 2010, alongside with the M4, which is the standard rifle at present.
But with the cost of the M27 IAR at US$3,000.00 and with just 11,000 rifles that are planned to be ordered, it is still not close to fully equipping the Marine infantry with enough M27 IAR. Perhaps, it is just adding more IAR ready to be issued for squads as there are just about less than a hundred of the IARs issued to the squads at present. Adding more M27 IARs to the Corps’ 32 infantry battalions would further enhance the firepower of the Marines at the fire team level.
The M27 IAR is base on the Heckler & Koch HK416 Assault Rifle, but with the RIF, the U.S. Marines will be requiring competitive bidding among interested manufacturers that can meet the required 11,000 IARs that are compatible with the existing weapon. The M27 IAR has a fully automatic fire option as compared to the M4 rifle and is more accurate due to its free floating barrel as well as longer range. As stated above, the M27 IAR is about three times more expensive the M4 with the latter costing US$750 per unit.
The U.S. Marine Corps are expecting responses from interested vendors by March 17, 2017.