US Secret Service Seeking New Multi-Caliber Sniper Rifles
The U.S. Secret Service (USSS) is shopping for new
that can be readily reconfigured to fire four different cartridges. Though there is no indication the two things are in any way related, the process of acquiring these guns formally kicked off just days after a USSS counter-sniper (CS) killed Thomas Matthew Crooks after he attempted to assassinate former president Donald Trump on July 13.
US Secret service isn’t real military but it is military aside in this case.
The RFP was launched the 18th of July. Which is week after the attempt on former President/Candidate Trump. This type of program usually takes months of planning and bureaucratic effort to put together so it likely predates the election let alone the incident. It probably would have been unnoticed except for the attempted assassination was so nearly successful with the world be assassin actually shooting Mr. Trump. The USSS is under a microscope and the director was under the heat lamps on capital hill until turning in her papers.
Let’s get started. What they have now. And through that we get to why the replacement is likely happening.
Let me introduce you to the current Sniper rifle of the United States Secret Service counter sniper team.
This is the Mk13 mod 7. The version pictured is the USMC’s version (photo credit USMC) it’s a Stiller Precision action chambered in .300 Winchester magnum with a 26 inch Lilja barrel. The USSS is just a little different in that the Mod 7’s stock which is the Accuracy International AX chassis system they use is black and they have a different selection of scope and bipod/tripod. Otherwise it’s the same gun.
The Mk13’s history starts around 2000 when the SEAL teams sniper were looking for something with better range and punch than the .308 NATO. They ended up picking.300 win mag. Using its metric designation it becomes clear why this change. 7.62x51mm NATO vs 7.62x67mm Winchester magnum. Longer bullet more powerful.
The SEALS went to the U.S. Navy’s Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Indiana which does all kinds of work for the department of the Boat people including small arms.
Craine put together the Mk13 mod 0 for the SEALs and all versions since. These rifles are built like the USMC’s M40 series. They are all customs using off the shelf parts assembled by DOD gunsmiths. At the time however it was Navy only. Back then it was a Remington 700 long action with a 26.5 inch barrel and a McMillian stock.
Then in 2002 Socom established the Joint Special Operations Programs office which was designed so that weapons and programs could she shared by Socom units outside each other’s services. So Mk13 began popping up in ArmySoc and other Special Operations units that felt a similar need. In 03 the rifle gained a suppressor and moved from a McMillian Fiberglass stock to the AI chassis with a folding stock at the request of the U.S. Army Rangers regiment this creates the mod 2. The mod 2 gets a few improvements over the years. In 05 the Marines take an interest in .300wm and build the XM3 rifle as a possible replacement for the M40A3 but they only build 52, the Army also took an interest with prototypes based off the M24 series around the same time. Unlike the Marines and SOCOM rifle the Army ones are built by Remington.
2008 SOCOM launches the Precision Sniper Rifle program as a replacement.[1]
In 2010 the Army adopts the M2010 in .300WM basically a Remington 700 LA bolt in a new Chassis system by CADEX .
At the same time the MK13’s bolt action is replaced by the Stiller Precision long action. Might sound weird but the Remington bolts were noted for issues with attaching rails. Stiller Precision is an American custom rifle maker they use a design inspired by the 700 which its self evolved from the Mauser action.
In 2013 Remington MSR wins the PSR becoming the Mk21 mod 0… [2]
However mod 7 starts coming together with a change of Stock to the new AX series.
Armysoc was using M2010s and so the Mod7s go to MarSoc units first then SEALS.. Because the USMC is the smallest US service until the U.S. Spaceforce its Marsoc snipers have likely had more of an influence over the USMC sniper program so it’s likely that the “regular scout snipers”. The thing is though that the Marines sniper training course is in MCB Quantico. That facility is also used by FBI HRT and U.S. Secret Service snipers for training. As such it may be here where the Secret Service begins learning about the mk13.
2015 the Mk21 PSR is deemed a POS. Socom scraps the program and Remington drops the MSR line. [3]
Dateline 2016. CBSevening news does a Fluff piece as part of the Obama administration UN General assembly dog and pony show in the big apple. During which they
2018 the Marines officially adopt the Mk13mod 7 as their official scout sniper rifle its declared IOC the next year which indicates just how small the USMC Sniper program is and how already interwoven the Mk13 already was.
Okay lots to digest. Now that we have the run down. Why does this matter and why is it likely that the U.S. Secret Service snipers are shopping around for a new sniper rifle now? [1][2][3]. Remember the Mk13 were hand built for Socom by Craine. Socom was shopping for a replacement rifle that was commercially sourced as the Precision Sniper Rifle. That would have basically closed the production of the Mk13 a decade ago, but Remington’s MSR failed to live up to the contract for the Mk21 mod 0 PSR and the company went into bankruptcy. This left Mk13 mod 7 as the winner by default.
In 2019 a year after the Marines defacto adopted the Mk13 mod 7 as their official scout sniper rifle. SOCOM awarded Barrett the contract for the Advanced Sniper Rifle program based on the Barrett MRAD this created the Mk22 mod 0 PSR. (As pictured above source USMC)
The Mk22 replaces the Mk13 in SOCOM. Farther the U.S. Army in 2021 and U.S.M.C. In 2022 followed suit. Making the Mk22 the official Sniper Rifle of the entire US military and by this point being a stake into the heart of the Mk13 program.
This means that the USSS can’t source Mk13mod7s from the Navy. Unless they are surplus and that’s only going to last so long and likely require rebuilding them as the lives on a .300wm rifle are shorter than a 7.62 NATO rifle.
Basically they had two options. First would be to build an in house armory tasked with manufacturing USSS sniper rifles.
Second source commercially a replacement. The first option doesn’t seam appropriate for an agency. It’s a hard argument to make in justifications. If this was the 1960s or 1970s even the 1980s. it would make sense as SWAT teams were rare. Sniper rifles were either highly specialized competition based or bone stock hunting rifles. This is why the Marines costom built the M40 series for so long. But by the 1990s you have dedicated police and military Sniper rifles on the market and by the turn of the millennium a cottage industry of makers whom are capable of customizing or building from scratch rifles that will kill a fruit fly at a thousand yards.
So going commercial makes sense by now. Well the USSS could commission clones of the Mk13 mod 7, in fact they could buy clones of them off the commercial market right now because it’s been around for so long and it’s got that Military street cred. It’s widely cloned. The question is why would they? If they are going to go commercial might as well shop around and as this is the 2020s Why bother with a hot rod hunting rifle action?
In 1982 Accuracy international introduced the L96A1 aka the PM one of the first true sniper rifles. It was conceived from scratch to be a sniper rifle for military and police use in one of the first chassis systems. Since then there has been an explosion of this type globally. AI improved upon it with the Artic warfare, SAKO introduced the TRG and since the turn of the millennium and the war on terror just about every other firearms manufacturer has a modular sniper rifle in the catalog. When the DOD adopted the Mk22 the USSS likely got a close look and felt they saw the future. Now right now they have issued a request for proposals. Basically they are asking makers to send them their catalogs. A few options I can think of, Barrett MSR, Desert Tech SRS A2, FN Ballista, AI AXMC, SAKO TGR, Nemesis arms ANSR, CADEX CDX-MC KRAKEN… and no doubt more.
I have seen some people asking about why so many caliber options I suspect that the USSS wants to shop around on that too maybe get a few samples and some range time then down select to one or two caliber that they like.
