M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle

The M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle (ESR), formerly known as the XM2010 and M24 Reconfigured Sniper Weapon System, is a sniper rifle developed by PEO Soldier for the United States Army. It is derived from and replaced the M24 Sniper Weapon System, and was designed to give snipers longer range in the mountainous and desert terrain of the War in Afghanistan. After winning a competitive bidding process, Remington was awarded the production contract for up to 3,600 weapons. The Army had anticipated sending the upgraded weapons to deployed snipers in late 2010, but later expected fielding would happen in January 2011. The M2010 fires .300 Winchester Magnum (7.62×67mm) ammunition, which offers about 50 percent more effective range than the M24's 7.62×51mm NATO. This chambering to dimensionally larger cartridges is possible because the M24 was designed to use the "long action" bolt version of the Remington 700 receiver for cartridges up to in overall length.
History.
The Barrett M107 .50 BMG rifle can hit targets past , but it is accurate to 2.5 MOA, meaning it would hit within a area at . This was acceptable for shooting at material but not people. The XM2010 addressed the problem with a .300 Winchester Magnum round that can hit targets out to with 1 MOA accuracy, half again as far as the M24's .
On 20 September 2010, the Army gave Remington a $28 million contract to rebuild 3,600 M24 rifles. By January, 250 had been ordered to be changed.
The U.S. Army issued three XM2010s to snipers at the United States Army Sniper School on 18 January 2011 and began using the rifle in combat in Afghanistan in March 2011. Snipers in the field learned how use and maintain the new rifle during a three-day course. After the course, snipers had no difficulty hitting targets out to 1,000 meters from "ridgetop to ridgetop". In addition to the more powerful cartridge, the new optic improves the rifle's ability to sight a target quickly without calculations of range estimation.
All 250 XM2010 rifles were to be fielded in eight Brigade Combat Teams by mid-May 2011. Based on the results and feedback from troops, the U.S. Army decided in May 2011 to replace its entire fleet of M24s, ordering a total of 2,558 M2010 rifles. By September 2012, the Army had fielded more than 1,400 systems as part of an urgent material release. The M2010 achieved Type Classification-Standard in July 2013 and Full Materiel Release in September 2013, supporting procurement for the balance of the Army requirement. On 25 April 2014, the 2,558th M2010 rifle was completed.
Precision guided firearm testing.
In January 2014, the Army bought six "smart scopes" made by TrackingPoint for testing on the M2010 sniper rifle. Costing between $22,000 and $27,000, the computerized scope marks a selected target, gathers and compensates for external factors, and uses a special trigger that does not pull until the system is sure the bullet will land where intended. It can help a bolt-action rifle to hit targets out to . It is intended to help non-snipers take shots at longer ranges, not replace sniping skills.
Replacement plans.
The U.S. Army plans to field the Barrett Mk22 MRAD (Multi-Role Adaptive Design) in 2021 to eventually replace the M2010. This bolt-action weapon can be user field converted to fire 7.62×51mm NATO, .300 Norma Magnum and .338 Norma Magnum. With the Norma Magnum chambering options, the Mk22 can shoot out to , further than the M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle.
Design details.
The M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle differs from 7.62×51mm NATO chambered M24 Sniper Weapon System in that M2010 sniper weapons are:
According to Remington Arms each rifle is tested to meet (and typically exceeds) the requirement to fire ≤ 1 moa/0.3 mil (less than a 2-inch shot group at 200 yards/ 6 cm at 200 meters) before being released for fielding.
Ammunition.
In 2009 the U.S. government purchased MK 248 MOD 1 .300 Winchester Magnum match-grade ammunition for use in .300 Winchester Magnum sniper rifles like the U.S. Navy Mk13 SWS or reconfigured M24 SWSs. This ammunition was developed as a .300 Winchester Magnum Match Product Improvement (PIP) and uses the 14.26 g (220 gr) Sierra MatchKing Hollow Point Boat Tail (HPBT) very-low-drag bullet fired at a nominal muzzle velocity of 869 m/s (2,850 ft/s) ± 15.2 m/s (50 ft/s). According to the U.S. Navy this ammunition should increase the maximum effective range of .300 Winchester Magnum sniper rifle systems to 1,370 m (1,500 yd), decrease wind deflection on bullets in flight and use a reduced muzzle flash propellant that remains temperature stable across an operational temperature range of -32 °C to 74 °C (-25 °F to 165 °F). According to JBM Ballistics, using the G7 ballistic coefficient provided by Bryan Litz, and a Weapon Employment Zone (WEZ) analysis of the XM2010 rifle with various .300 Winchester Magnum ammunition types by Bryan Litz, the MK 248 MOD 1 .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge, when fired at its nominal muzzle velocity of 869 m/s (2,850 ft/s), should have supersonic range under International Standard Atmosphere conditions at sea level (air density ρ = 1.225 kg/m3).
In January 2014, the U.S. Department of Defense annual testing report found that the older A191 or MK 248 Mod 0 .300 Winchester Magnum service round loaded with aerodynamically less efficient 190 gr (12.32 g) Sierra MatchKing Hollow Point Boat Tail (HPBT) bullets fired from the XM2010 demonstrated adequate performance and lethality. Live fire tests were conducted in March 2013 against ballistics gelatin, light material barriers, and other targets to determine the projectile's ability to perforate targets. This was the first time the Pentagon's Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) tested the round, which can hit targets out to .
Civilian use.
In March 2015 Remington Defense announced that they will start offering some of their products for sale on the civilian market. One of those products is the M2010 sniper rifle.