“The next thing we’re going to do on the M40A5 is build a modular stock,” he said. “The intent isn’t to improve the capability, in this particular case, but to reduce our maintenance downtime. Because what we do is take that weapon, which is built in Quantico, Va., by Marines in the precision weapons section, and we have an armorer [fit] the stock against the receiver. That takes an awful lot of time and it also means that we have to take that weapon out of the field and send it back to Quantico to have it rebuilt. We’re trying to get ourselves out of that by going to a modular stock. And we just recently started that effort.

“It’s very similar to what we did on the M39,” he continued. “The M39 is basically a highly modified M14 and it’s also built at the precision weapons section. We don’t have as many armorers as we would like to have sitting in Quantico, Va., because most of them tend to be forward in theater. So we are trying to reduce the amount of maintenance we have going on in precision weapon systems.”

Marine Corps efforts toward the Scout Sniper Ballistic Computer follow those of the U.S. Army to provide the sniper with the ability to punch in data and obtain information that needs to go on the weapon to obtain first-round hit accuracy. Marine Corps fielding of the same system used by the Army begins in the summer of 2009.

Cautioning that “it’s not a done deal,” Bianca noted that the Marine Corps “would be very interested” in replacing the fixed buttstock on the M16A4 with a collapsible version.

“The overriding concern that we have is that we are not willing to give up any reliability to be able to do that,” he said. “We’ve found that pretty much everything out there right now reduces our reliability by a little bit. Now it may be a trade-off in the short term in terms of giving up something, but in the long term, we want a collapsible buttstock on the M16A4 that is just as reliable as a fixed buttstock.”

Looking toward future program efforts, Bianca identified the Rapid Engagement Precision Rifle, Long Range Sniper Rifle, M40A5 Improved Barrel, MEU(SOC) pistol receiver, and foreign weapons kits.

“The Rapid Engagement Precision Rifle is basically a replacement for our M39 and the Mk. 11 [Navy 7.62 mm sniper rifle] that was fielded as an Urgent UNS for Iraqi Freedom,” he said.

Moving on, he added, “For the Long Range Sniper Rifle, we are working very closely with USSOCOM [U.S. Special Operations Command] – they have a PSR [Precision Sniper Rifle] – and we have a very similar capability requirement that’s developing. We actually don’t have the capability document yet – it’s in the process of being written – but we’ve been working with USSOCOM quite a bit in terms of our requirements to be very closely related to what PSR is doing.

“The M40A5 Improved Barrel is another effort to keep the ‘A5’ in the field until we get the [Long Range Sniper Rifle]. And what we are looking for there is a shorter barrel that’s lighter, and we don’t want to give up any accuracy or capability in the process of doing that. It’s a tough thing to say and do but that’s what we’re looking for,” he said.

Describing the MEU(SOC) pistol as “basically a highly modified M1911 that is hand-built by the precision weapon section armorers at Quantico,” Bianca acknowledged the current requirement to “go through about 10 receivers of the old M1911s before we get one that is within tolerance to use on an MEU(SOC) pistol. We believe that ultimately we will have to go to a commercial source and we would be interested in doing that in the near future.”

Finally, the Marine Corps JSSAST principal highlighted the future requirement for foreign weapons kits, describing them as: “Basically a giant collection of Soviet-made weapons from AK-47s to PKMs to all kinds of things.”

“We’re putting them into the hands of Marines because they’re running into them on the battlefields,” he said. “They are training [others on] foreign weapons and how to use them. And they need to know it themselves. We have three kits in the field right now and we just got a requirement update and funding to go for eight more.”