The M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle (ESR), formerly known as the XM2010 and M24 Reconfigured Sniper Weapon System, is a

bolt action Bolt action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the turn-bolt via a bolt handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm (as most users are right-handed). The majority of b ...

sniper rifle A sniper rifle is a high-precision, long range shooting, long-range rifle. Requirements include high accuracy, reliability, mobility, concealment, and optics, for anti-personnel weapon, anti-personnel, anti-materiel rifle, anti-materiel and sur ...

developed by

PEO Soldier Program Executive Office Soldier (PEO Soldier) or Team Soldier is a program executive office of the United States Army that is responsible for rapid prototyping, procurement, and fielding of equipment for the soldiers. History On 7 June 2002, ...

for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

. It is derived from and replaced the

M24 Sniper Weapon System The M24 Sniper Weapon System (SWS) or M24 is the military and police version of the Remington Model 700 rifle, ''M24'' being the model name assigned by the United States Army after adoption as their standard sniper rifle in 1988. The M24 is ref ...

, and was designed to give snipers longer range in the mountainous and desert terrain of the War in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. After winning a 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 that offers about 50 percent greater effective range than the M24's

7.62×51mm NATO The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, straight walled, bottlenecked, centerfire rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries. First developed in the 1950s, the cartridge had first be ...

. This chambering to dimensionally larger cartridges is possible because the M24 was designed to use the "long action" bolt version of the

Remington 700 The Remington Model 700 is part of a series of bolt-action (later semi-automatic 7400 series) centerfire rifles manufactured by Remington Arms since 1962. It is a progressive variant of the Remington Model 721 and Model 722 rifles series, wh ...

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 Moa are extinct giant flightless birds native to New Zealand. Moa or MOA may also refer to: Arts and media * Metal Open Air, a Brazilian heavy metal festival * MOA Museum of Art in Japan * The Moas, New Zealand film awards People * Moa ...

, meaning it would hit within a area at . This was acceptable for shooting at materiel, but not people. The XM2010 addressed the problem with a .300 Winchester Magnum round that can hit targets out to with a 1 MOA accuracy, half again further than 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 The U.S. Army Sniper Course trains selected military members assigned to sniper positions in the skills necessary to deliver Long range shooting, long-range precision fire and the collection of battlefield information. Students will receive tr ...

on 18 January 2011 and began using the rifle in combat in Afghanistan in March 2011. Snipers in the field learned how to 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: * Chambered to .300 Winchester Magnum. * Barreled to a long, 1 in

twist rate Rifling is the term for helical grooves machined into the internal surface of a firearms's barrel for imparting a spin to a projectile to improve its aerodynamic stability and accuracy. It is also the term (as a verb) for creating such groov ...

(using Obermeyer 5-R rifling) hammer-forged free floating barrel. * Fitted with a new chassis (stock) assembly that maximizes the amount of physical adjustments for the sniper to provide a better user customized fit. The chassis has a right folding buttstock that shortens the system for easier transport and better concealment during movement and accommodates the mounting of accessories via removable Mil Std 1913

Picatinny Rail The 1913 rail (MIL-STD-1913 rail) is an American rail integration system designed by Richard Swan that provides a mounting platform for firearm accessories. It forms part of the NATO standard STANAG 2324 rail. It was originally used for mount ...

s and accessory cables via routing channels. * Fitted with a five-round detachable

box magazine A magazine, often simply called a mag, is an ammunition storage and feeding device for a repeating firearm, either integral within the gun (internal/fixed magazine) or externally attached (detachable magazine). The magazine functions by holdi ...

. * Fitted with a quick-attachable/detachable Advanced Armament Corporation (AAC)

sound suppressor A silencer, also known as a sound suppressor, suppressor, or sound moderator, is a gun barrel#Muzzle, muzzle device that suppresses the muzzle blast, blast created when a gun (firearm or airgun) is discharged, thereby reducing the sound inten ...

with

muzzle brake A muzzle brake or recoil compensator is a device connected to, or a feature integral (ported barrel) to the construction of, the muzzle or barrel of a firearm or cannon that is intended to redirect a portion of propellant gases to counter re ...

to reduce recoil and jump and audible and visible signature with an available thermal sleeve that reduces mirage effect on heated suppressors. The Titan-QD Fast-Attach suppressor eliminates 98 percent of muzzle flash, 60 percent of recoil, and reduces sound by 32 decibels.Army's XM2010 sniper rifle gets full fielding
- Armytimes.com, 25 April 2011 * Fitted with a Leupold Mark 4 6.5–20×50mm ER/T M5A2 Front Focal variable power

telescopic sight A telescopic sight, commonly called a scope informally, is an optical sighting device based on a refracting telescope. It is equipped with some form of a referencing pattern – known as a ''reticle'' – mounted in a focally appropriate p ...

featuring a 34 mm tube diameter, first focal plane Horus Vision H-58 grid system range estimation reticle and Bullet Drop Compensation, fielded with the AN/PVS-29 or AN/PVS-30 Clip-on Sniper Night Sight. * The application of advanced corrosion resistant coatings throughout the system. According to Remington Arms, each rifle is tested to meet (and typically exceeds) the requirement to fire ≤ 1

moa Moa are extinct giant flightless birds native to New Zealand. Moa or MOA may also refer to: Arts and media * Metal Open Air, a Brazilian heavy metal festival * MOA Museum of Art in Japan * The Moas, New Zealand film awards People * Moa ...

/0.3 mil (less than a 2-inch shot group at ) 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 A very-low-drag bullet (VLD) is primarily a small arms ballistics development of the 1980s–1990s, driven by the design objective of bullets with higher degrees of accuracy and kinetic efficiency, especially at extended ranges. To achieve this, ...

fired at a nominal muzzle velocity of ± . According to the U.S. Navy, this ammunition should increase the maximum effective range of .300 Winchester Magnum sniper rifle systems to , decrease wind deflection on bullets in flight, and use a reduced muzzle flash propellant that remains temperature stable across an operational temperature range of . According to JBM Ballistics,JBM Ballistics freeware online ballistic calculator
. using the 0.310 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 , should have supersonic range under

International Standard Atmosphere The International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) is a static atmospheric model of how the pressure, temperature, density, and viscosity of the Earth's atmosphere change over a wide range of altitudes or elevations. It has been established to provide ...

conditions at sea level (

air density The density of air or atmospheric density, denoted '' ρ'', is the mass per unit volume of Earth's atmosphere at a given point and time. Air density, like air pressure, decreases with increasing altitude. It also changes with variations in atmosph ...

ρ = 1.225 kg/m³).Emily Bohnenkamp, Bradford Hackert, Maurice Motley, and Michael Courtney, Comparing Advertised Ballistic Coefficients with Independent Measurements, DTIC, 2012. https://mittelkaliber.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/BC_Vergleich_1.pdf 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 (0.270 G7 ballistic coefficient provided by Bryan Litz) 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.

Gallery

File:XM2010.jpg, Right view of the M2010 File:XM2010 (Left view).jpg, Left view of the M2010 File:XM2010 (Right front view).jpg, Right front view of the M2010 File:XM2010 (Right back view).jpg, Right back view of the M2010 File:XM2010 with case.jpg, Rifle with case and maintenance kit File:Flickr - The U.S. Army - Observation post.jpg, In US Army service in Afghanistan, February 2012 File:151026-A-CH409-2507 (22736962176).jpg, US sniper team train with an unsuppressed M2010, October 2015

Users

*: Colombian Special Forces *:

References

External links

M24E1 is Now the XM2010

For Immediate Release: Army Awards Contract for Upgraded M24 Sniper Weapon System

M24E1 Enhanced Sniper Rifle (ESR)

Equipment Piece of the Week: XM2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle (ESR)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xm2010 7.62 mm rifles Bolt-action rifles of the United States Sniper rifles of the United States Remington Arms firearms Military equipment introduced in the 2010s .300 Winchester Magnum firearms