![]() Wade said in the video that he had received questions from Marines who were worried that a suppressor would reduce accuracy and speed. To address concerns among infantry Marines, Wade recently produced a three-minute video posted on YouTube titled "Gunner Fact or Fiction." The video shows Wade firing a suppressed and unsuppressed M4 through a device measuring the speed of the round. But Wade cautioned that only further testing will reveal if that claim is accurate. ![]() Wade said some companies that sell the new technology claim that it reduces weapons fouling and increases service life exponentially over current technologies. The current suppressor being used by Wade's Marines is the Knight's Armament QDSS NT4 suppressor, but Marine Corps Systems Command is reviewing more advanced suppressor technology known as "flow-through," and is expected to make a selection soon, Wade said. "They've called the AR-15 a self-cleaning weapon," Wade said. The blowback also pushes lubricant or gun oil, at the shooter. ![]() Walker and Wade both noted that there is increased fouling, or carbon build up, in weapons fired with suppressors due to how the device vents gasses back into the weapon. Walker estimated some suppressors are only good for 1,500 to 2,000 rounds.įor now, the Marines are more enthusiastic and are testing suppressors more aggressively, while the Army is a bit more skeptical. With current suppressors costing about $700 each, getting more rounds and years out of them is crucial at a time of tight military budgets. Some concerns persist, especially the increased maintenance and the service life of suppressors. ![]() Some suppressors, depending on the weapon and caliber it is paired with, weigh less than two pounds and measure six inches with a less than a two-inch diameter. Yet newer technologies have reduced the weight, and changes to weapon design and barrel length have mitigated some of the concerns, Scales said. In the past, suppressors' drawbacks included extra weight and length on a weapon, limited service life of the suppressor, and concerns about reducing accuracy and range, experts said. It is a necessity when looking at peer and near-peer adversaries such as Russian troops, who used suppressors when they fought in Ukraine. That is a battlefield advantage when fighting poorly funded and trained insurgents or terrorists, he said. If a soldier's weapon is quieter than the enemy's, and the enemy can't see the muzzle flash, the soldier has the advantage, Scales said. "Both sides shoot at flashes and sounds." "There are virtually no instances where an ambushed unit actually sees the enemy," Scales, a Vietnam War veteran, said. Scales said a century's worth of ground combat study shows that the principal target acquisition, whether it's counter-sniper or repelling an ambush, is sound. The suppressor has a relatively simple design, but the Army and Marine Corps hope it will give ground-pounding soldiers and Marines a distinct battlefield advantage. More recently, the Marines' 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion and some line platoons with combat engineer units have fielded suppressors, Wade, a former scout sniper, said. Snipers and special operations personnel have used suppressors for decades. Robert Scales, author of "Scales on War: The Future of America's Military at Risk." troops used suppressors with success in firefights, said retired Army Maj. Snipers for various militaries used suppressors during World War II. The Office of Strategic Services, predecessor to the CIA, used suppressors on pistols for covert operations. Maxim also invented the car exhaust muffler. The first commercially manufactured suppressor was made in the early 1900s by Hiram Percy Maxim, son of the inventor of the first practical, fully-automatic machine gun. Last month, Wade entered the second phase of the suppressor experiment - adding suppressors to the M240 machine gun, which fires the 7.62 mm round. Until recently, the suppressors were only used on the 5.56 mm-firing weapons. Wade's aim is to eventually equip every Marine in the experimental squad with a suppressed M27.
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