I've been wanting to buy a new rifle and I started wondering about the civilian availability of the SCAR-L/H so I called FN this morning (09/04/2008) and asked what was the latest information and here's what I found out from FN Commercial Sales.
SCAR-L (5.56mm NATO) will be available sometime between early October 2008 and January 2009.
First guns will be Dark Earth, no mention of black.
Civilian versions are being made overseas (I assume he meant FN Herstal Belgium) and imported, NOT made in the USA.
Absolutely no MSRP at this time, they don't even have a part number.
SCAR-H (7.62 NATO) will not be available until mid-2009.
Military versions are being made here in the US, the military gets to make the rules, since even though the guns are being made in the FN USA factory, the military actually owns the machinery making the guns. There is a great deal of politics involved (he wouldn't elaborate) and this has contributed to the civilian delay.
Everyone that falls under the SOCOM umbrella will be using SCAR, and possibly even the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. He said that the USMC was interested.
That is all for now.
This last part is entirely my opinion.
The SCAR may well be our next official Service Rifle, if the Army can be prevented from the Not-Invented-Here intransigence it has shown in the past. I would like to see this family of rifles go into service. IMO, the direct impingement system of the AR family is hopelessly outdated, and the US should have had a new rifle a decade ago. I think it's terrible that our service people should have to devote so much of their valuable time to keep continually cleaning such a basic piece of equipment. That's time that could be spent eating, resting or sleeping. I had hoped we would be able to graduate to caseless assault rifle (HK G-11) but that was not to be. Since the Army has taken the HK 416 away from our people it seems like it's either going to be the SCAR or we wait another 10 years for something almost identical to SCAR simply because the Army wants to call all the shots.
SCAR-L (5.56mm NATO) will be available sometime between early October 2008 and January 2009.
First guns will be Dark Earth, no mention of black.
Civilian versions are being made overseas (I assume he meant FN Herstal Belgium) and imported, NOT made in the USA.
Absolutely no MSRP at this time, they don't even have a part number.
SCAR-H (7.62 NATO) will not be available until mid-2009.
Military versions are being made here in the US, the military gets to make the rules, since even though the guns are being made in the FN USA factory, the military actually owns the machinery making the guns. There is a great deal of politics involved (he wouldn't elaborate) and this has contributed to the civilian delay.
Everyone that falls under the SOCOM umbrella will be using SCAR, and possibly even the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. He said that the USMC was interested.
That is all for now.
This last part is entirely my opinion.
The SCAR may well be our next official Service Rifle, if the Army can be prevented from the Not-Invented-Here intransigence it has shown in the past. I would like to see this family of rifles go into service. IMO, the direct impingement system of the AR family is hopelessly outdated, and the US should have had a new rifle a decade ago. I think it's terrible that our service people should have to devote so much of their valuable time to keep continually cleaning such a basic piece of equipment. That's time that could be spent eating, resting or sleeping. I had hoped we would be able to graduate to caseless assault rifle (HK G-11) but that was not to be. Since the Army has taken the HK 416 away from our people it seems like it's either going to be the SCAR or we wait another 10 years for something almost identical to SCAR simply because the Army wants to call all the shots.