M24 sniper rifles for Afghanistan

Nope, they get bulk discounts and good driver discounts.

WAIT.
The Afghani's are getting M24's?
That's not cool, good guys or not, they don't need our long range weapons, only to be lost and taken by the insurgents...
Just my opinion..

That's a pretty pricey item. Wonder if it costs our military the same?:

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Nope, they get bulk discounts and good driver discounts.

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I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same price.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same price.

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If I remember correctly the last order to FNH for M16's had a unit price of around $420. A lot less than what you can find a lower quality AR at the LGS.

If I remember correctly the last order to FNH for M16's had a unit price of around $420. A lot less than what you can find a lower quality AR at the LGS.

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These rifles aren't M16s mass produced at the lowest possible cost. I don't know how much they are charging for them but I wouldn't assume that they are necessarily cheap.

The insurgents don't need to steal M-24s to have long-range rifles. Whether it was the M-24 or any of a hundred other commercially available rifles, the Afghanis or their enemies could get a sniping rifle very easily. It isn't the rifle that is dangerous. And it's not like they don't know anything about sniping. They have been using unconventional tactics to drive out invaders for centuries.

I can't open the pdf, I'm going to suggest that if they are actual M-24s, we are probably rotating out our older rifles to them.

This is one of those "fear the indian, not the arrow" situations.

The Mosin Nagant, or SVD, don't really count as a sniper rifle to me, But if the insurgents get their hands on M24's, with high quality glass, that has a Mil-Dot reticle, that they might learn to use...
That makes me feel sick.
I was watching a program on the Military channel, where a 2 man scout sniper team killed a couple of insurgents that were sitting in a van overlooking a road, when they went to the van after the kills, they recovered a killed snipers' M40, that the insurgents had been using against the Marines.
We don't need that happening in afghanistan, where the standard soldiers' M16's and M4's aren't going to keep up with the .308 rounds....
Last thing we need is insurgents using our weapons against us.

This is bloody insane.

Talk about stupid military spendings. Why on earth do they need such an expensive rifle paid by us tax payers?
Some second hand M16s it's ok, but $7000 sniper rifle to some guys that used beat up ak's for all their lives is insane.
This wars are really making some people filthy rich on tax payer's backs.
Like is not enough suporting your troops, you have to buy uber cool gadgets for foreign troops, that could use them against you in a few months.:banghead:

Oh, we can't spend our limited resources to get the SCAR to our special forces. .....but we can buy seven grand a piece coll sniper rifles for foreign troops, that could change their mind tomorow. :banghead:

I though all the M24's were getting the barrel change to .300WM, and that tacticool stock, guess not..

I say again,

If they want long range rifles, it's not like the army is the only place to get them. They can beg, borrow or steal the best rifle in the world, this has never been difficult to get. The reason it hasn't been a concern until now is because they completely understand, having a rifle doesn't make ANYONE a sniper.

I heard the story about the re-captured M-40 too. There is nothing at all to indicate it ever actually fired against us. And when they got it back, it had different glass on it. Anyone can buy a Remington 700 VS and slap a scope on it. That doesn't mean they have a clue what to do with it other than shoot it like an assault rifle but slower. Calm down, this isn't news.

mljdeckard is super correct. thank you for posting it.

now back to the op's question: what's the going rate for these anywhere else?

Jaws said:

This is bloody insane.

Talk about stupid military spendings. Why on earth do they need such an expensive rifle paid by us tax payers?
Some second hand M16s it's ok, but $7000 sniper rifle to some guys that used beat up ak's for all their lives is insane.
This wars are really making some people filthy rich on tax payer's backs.
Like is not enough suporting your troops, you have to buy uber cool gadgets for foreign troops, that could use them against you in a few months.:banghead:

Oh, we can't spend our limited resources to get the SCAR to our special forces. .....but we can buy seven grand a piece coll sniper rifles for foreign troops, that could change their mind tomorow. :banghead:

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The SOCOM refused the SCAR after they demanded FN build it just like they wanted.

Think about it for a second: retraining the entire DoD on a new weapons system, cycling out all of the armories with parts, tools, weapons. Disposal of the old rifles. While fighting two wars? All for the same caliber and a piston? EXPENSIVE. LIKE STUPIDLY EXPENSIVE.

The last time the military did that, they got a bunch of people killed. Remember when they fielded the M16 in Vietnam?

I've used both rifles for their intended purpose. I'll take the M4 anyday.

they just need to upgrade the existing weaponry to a 6.5mm or 6.8mm. the mags would all still work, so would all other parts of the weapons. expanded capability, no retraining of operators.

Mags, bolts, and barrels wouldn't work. And in some cases the buffers wouldn't either.

The arguments about them having the rifles are ridiculous. As previous posters have stated, they can get the rifles any where.

My issue is that my tax dollars were used to purchase them. That is what boils my blood. We are past the point of having to supply the Afghan Army.

If its paid by taxpayers, they dont care less . They stand in the notion that war is expensive and if it needs to be done, it will be done.

The 6.8 SPC will never be the MBR cartridge unless NATO adopts it. Period. The two MBR cartridges approved by NATO are the 5.56 and the 7.62. Changing the MBR cartridge during a war is simply ridiculous.

The problem with today's soldiers not getting enemy kills at distance is not a hardware issue, it's a software issue. The soldiers are getting poor training in marksmanship and the accuracy and skill set of our soldiers is degrading. A different cartridge and weapon system will not solve that problem. The military needs to get serious about killing and training our soldiers to be marksmen.

killchain Quote:


The SOCOM refused the SCAR after they demanded FN build it just like they wanted.

Think about it for a second: retraining the entire DoD on a new weapons system, cycling out all of the armories with parts, tools, weapons. Disposal of the old rifles. While fighting two wars? All for the same caliber and a piston? EXPENSIVE. LIKE STUPIDLY EXPENSIVE.

The last time the military did that, they got a bunch of people killed. Remember when they fielded the M16 in Vietnam?

I've used both rifles for their intended purpose. I'll take the M4 anyday.

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The point I'm trying to make is that for some reason is not justified to get new modern weapon for US troops yet you buy new modern ridiculously expensive sniper rifles for the Afghan Army.
The pdf above shows 9 Million dolar contract for 1300 M24's going to the Afghan Army.
Why not buy some thing like a scoped remington 700's for the Afghan army and use the rest of the money to get something for the US troops instead. Or just don't spend the money.
I just used the scar example becaus you can buy around 7000 SCAR rifles for your troops on the money you spend on 1000 boutique sniper rifles for ANA.

Am I missing something? I don't see anything in the contract that says this is a foreign military sale (FMS). The customers are the Army and the Air Force and it's administered by DCMA.

My guess would be that these are probably not for American snipers overseas but I could be wrong. Last I checked the US military had a contract to upgrade existing M24's to .300 WM and I don't think they would order any more 7.62 rifles from the factory (at least not this many).