Or that's what one blogger on a prominent weapons site said the other day...
Kit Up! friend and gun guru David Crane of Defense Review forwarded along a piece by one of his contributors, Chen Lee, about how this mysterious "common receiver" that FNH is developing for its Mk-17 SCAR-H will save the Mk-16 -- sort of.
As the MK16 SCAR-L won the initial contract, the planned evolution of this weapon was for it to employ a multicaliber single receiver, better know as the “common receiver”. This explains the recent decision to run with the Mk-17 and use a 5.56mm adapter kit/conversion kit for it and to produce a common receiver/multicaliber weapons platform.
Sure, the original solicitation called for the development of a common receiver that could be adapted to the rifle so that an operator could fire both 7.62 or 5.56 (or whatever?) ammo the situation called for. But it's a stretch to say that the development of a common receiver "explains the recent decision to run with the Mk-17 and use a 5.56 adaptor..." What decision to do that?
SOCOM told me on the record that no decision has been made on the still-developmental common receiver, so unless Lee has some inside gouge that he's not citing, there's no evidence SOCOM will use the "5.56 adaptor."
The post also spins the yarn that the Mk-16 was just rolled into the Mk-17 and the common receiver program:
So, when SOCOM decided to move the development funding for the the Mk-16 and Mk-17 and roll it into the Mk17 with a common receiver, it was also part of the cycle of development, but that announcement created the appearance of the MK16 program’s cancellation, and resulting reportage with that interpretation...
Again, "decided"...? On the record, SOCOM told me spending money on the Mk-16 wasn't worth it since it was only a marginal improvement over the M4 and saw no use in spending SOCOM dollars on a weapon the services buy their snake eaters already. And the meme that that Mk-16 wasn't "cancelled" and that only hyperbolic "reportage" "interpreted" the fact that the command had decided to stop buying the Mk-16 and have all those in the field returned as a "cancellation" is borderline delusional. Give me a break. It's CANCELLED! Live with it!
I give great credit to my friend David Crane who put in an editorial note backing me up. This issue is clearly very emotional to FH fans (myself included) because they put so much work and hope into this program only to have the vast bulk of it unceremoniously ripped out from under them.
So I understand there's some desire to paint lipstick on this pig. And Kit Up! won't take it personally...
