It seems that not only USSOCOM is interested in the MRAD/ASR (Multi-Role Adaptive Design) rifle produced by the legendary Barrett Firearms Manufacturing.
The MRAD was created based on the Barrett 98B rifle as a contender for the Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) program of the Special Operations Command. The rifle was initially omitted by SOCOM in favor of the Remington Arms modular sniper rifle (MSR).
Nevertheless, military planners from SOCOM, the US Army and Marine Corps made moves to add the new, modular Barrett sniper system to their arsenals.
In the case of USSOCOM, the Remington MSR rifle did not fully meet the requirements and caused technical problems, forcing the SOCOM command to return to the Barrett model and awarding the company a contract in 2019 to adapt the MRAD to the standards set out in the ASR program. The rifle was to be adapted for firing 7.62X51 NATO, 300 Norma Magnum and .338 Norma Magnum rounds.
As part of the budget requests for the financial year 2021, both the US ARMY and the USMC included applications for the MRAD as the main sniper system.
The US Army wants to buy 536 MRAD sniper systems for around $ 10.13 million under its own Precision Sniper Rifle program to eventually replace the M107 and the M2010 sniper systems.
The Marines want to buy 250 MRAD sniper systems under the ASR SOCOM program for around $ 4 million to "replace all sniper rifles" currently in use.
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Sources: military.com, taskandpurpose.com, gununiversity.com, ammoland.com,en.wikipedia.org
