Plan d’équipement

Les premières livraisons du HK 416 F, nouveau fusil d’assaut de l’armée de Terre qui en détiendra à terme 93 080 exemplaires, ont débuté en juin 2017 et se termineront en 2028.

Ce fusil sera livré en deux versions : standard et courte.
Il équipera toutes les unités de l’armée de Terre et sera compatible avec toutes les munitions de 5,56 mm homologuées OTAN. Les accessoires (aide à la visée, lunette, désignateur laser) seront très facilement adaptables sur cette arme qui possède une excellente fiabilité.
Les armes seront félinisées directement en régiment grâce à des kits en 2020 et 2021.
Des FAMAS FELIN coexisteront jusqu’alors avec les HK 416 F dans les unités afin de préserver la supériorité apportée par FELIN.
Quatre principes retenus :

    1 HK 416 F perçu = 1 FAMAS réintégré. Pour les régiments d’infanterie, les FAMAS excédentaires à reverser en priorité sont les FAMAS infanterie et les FAMAS valorisés ;
    Les unités d’infanterie seront équipées avec le HK 416 F et le FAMAS FELIN jusqu’en 2021 ;
    Le 1er régiment de tirailleurs (1er RTIR) disposera d’une première livraison de 150 HK 416 F Standard en juin 2017. La 13e demi-brigade de Légion étrangère (13e DBLE) sera équipée de 250 HK 416 F en juin 2017. Ils pourront tirer en garnison dès la mi-juin 2017.
    Les réservistes seront dotés du HK 416 F au sein de leurs unités à l’instar du FAMAS.

Présentation
38 505 HK 416 F en version standard pour les troupes débarquées, dont 14 915 seront félinisés (2019-2021) ;
54 575 HK 416 F en version courte pour les troupes embarquées et les unités engagées au format PROTERRE.

Caractéristiques :
Fusil au calibre OTAN 5,56 mm, le HK 416 F dispose d’une crosse réglable et de talons de crosse permettant de s’adapter à la morphologie de chaque tireur. Disposant d’une autonomie accrue, le combattant sera muni de 10 chargeurs de 30 cartouches. Ce fusil, véritablement conçu comme un système d’armes, intègre l’ensemble des dispositifs existant et notamment les aides à la visée. Il est équipé en cela de 4 rails Picatinny permettant la fixation des accessoires comme la baïonnette sur la version standard ou le lance-grenade de 40 mm utilisable sur les deux versions.
Renseignements numériques :
HK 416 F standard : longueur comprise entre 83 et 93 cm
HK 416 F courte : longueur comprise entre 74 et 84 cm
Masse du HK 416 standard : 4 kg
Masse du HK 416 court : 3,7 kg
Chargeurs 30 coups

Accessoires :
10 chargeurs de 30 coups
1 bouchon de protection
Talon de crosse concave
Talon de crosse convexe
1 baïonnette
1 bipied
1 sangle ISTC
1 trousse d’entretien
1 dispositif de tir à blanc et 3 chargeurs dédiés aux munitions d’exercice
1 housse de protection

Posted May 7, 2017

..The M4 Carbine’s barrel is made of the same 4150 steel (a low grade chome-molybdenium steel) that has been the military standard since World War II. In the M4, this steel is button rifled, heat treated to between 277 and 331 Brinell (approximately 28-36 Rockwell C) and then chrome-lined. With the M27, in contrast, the barrel is made of high chromium content Aubert & Duval chrome-molybdenum-vanadium steel, cold hammer forged to give a tapered bore, and heat treated to 41 Rockwell C, then chrome lined..

...Given then that the M27 offers an improvement over the existing weapons, why shouldn’t the Marine Corps adopt it? The reason at its heart lies in the fact that the M27 is still very much a weapon that was developed in the early 2000s, and selected based on a 2007 RFI. It is not that the M27 is a poor weapon, but rather that, in the ten years since the Infantry Automatic Rifle program was made public, substantial commercial off the shelf (COTS) improvements have been introduced that could provide a weapon of equal or greater capability to the M27, but at lower cost and lower weight. Even better, by upgrading the M4 Carbine various engineering shortcomings inherent to the M27 can be avoided entirely. This sort of improvement could be achieved via a depot level or upper receiver group upgrade program to the existing M4, which opens a number of procurement avenues for the Marine Corps that otherwise would be closed if the M27 were sought instead. Sole-sourcing the M27 as a standard infantry weapon virtually constitutes doing it backwards: Instead of learning from the Corps’ experience with the IAR and implementing the best possible fleet solution to provide the required capability to the Infantry, they would simply be sticking a ring on their first major crush. The M27 does pave the way forward, but it itself is already dated technology. A more sound approach would be to leverage the competitive environment to procure something better, lighter, and cheaper.

The M27 was adopted by the Marine Corps in the 2010 as a replacement for the problematic belt-fed M249 Squad Automatic Weapon then in use. In that same year, the M855A1 was adopted by the US Army after several years of development, replacing the former M855 round used by both the Army and Marine Corps. However, Marine Corps testing showed some initial problems with the new round, especially in their M27 IARs. The round produced higher chamber pressure than the previous M855, and its exposed steel tip caused damage over time to the feedways of existing weapons, especially the tighter forcing cones of M27s. The higher gas port pressure also caused early unlocking which put additional stress on M27 bolts and shortened their lifespan. Over the next seven years, the Army incrementally improved the round in part to improve compatiblity with Marine Corps weapons. However, the M27/M855A1 combination remains a sub-optimal one, and an obstacle to the USMC’s acceptance of the Army round.

So, there’s a lot of good reason to have commonality. The good news with that round, and with both rounds actually, much more capable and specifically the Army 855A1 much better at penetrating armor and along with personal armor protection. So, that’s a good reason to go with that, we have to work through a lot of things with our own weapons. The M4, our M27s, our IAR – Infantry Advanced Weapon (sic) – and along with our M16s. We’re working through some of the reliability things we’re learning in testing, but we’l make some adjustments with that and in the end I think our Marines will have a much better capability when we’re done with it.