Delta Force was an early adopter of a lot of civilian competition gear into military service, and the modern AR-10 is a great example. Delta worked with Knights Armament to fine-tune the SR-25 rifle, with it first being used by Delta, then being adopted by the US Navy, and eventually by the Army as the M110 SASS. What we have here today is a further development after the adoption of the sniper pattern like the M110. Delta wanted something with sniper-level accuracy, but short enough to use in urban combat and building clearing operations. Knights obliged, and this rifle (the upper, that is) is one of a batch that were purchased in 2012 or 2013 by Delta. However, shortly after these were acquired, Knights released an improved version of the railed handguard, and Delta opted to send back their EMC (Enhanced Military Carbines) for replacement with the newer version. Knights took those returned guns, put the uppers onto new-production semiauto lowers, and sold them off on the civilian market quietly. Surplus arms from the US military in any form are pretty rare these days, and surplus equipment from Delta Force is extremely rare, making these a really cool example!
Note that when I filmed this, the suppressor had not yet transferred, so I didn’t have access to it. It has since cleared, and is included with the rifle at Morphy’s this week (Lot 3010, on Thursday, July 14th).
As they piss away taxpayer money on the latest shiny toy
cheaper than having something custom built from scratch, fully incompatible with all civilian arms, which is the usual way of military procurement.
Oddly enough, it really is. Delta blows just SOME MONEY and somehow, what they get still comes in cheaper than any Big Army procurement project. But they could’ve done this themselves using machinery that the taxpayers already bought them. Cutting and recrowning a barrel ain’t that hard, and everything else on an AR is just a parts swap.
Is it pissing away?
Or,
is it getting laundered and delivered, all cleaned up, into the “right” people’s pockets?
There may be a good reason why development projects so often come in decades late, orders of magnitude over budget, and barely achieving a fraction of what was originally promised (F35 for example).
That reason might be, all of those cost over runs go into the right peoples bank accounts
And the product that doesn’t perform at the end
Leaves the way open for another project that can be strung out for decades and run orders of magnitude over budget.
The usual gas lighting response to any criticism of the system is that the critic is aiding enemies and threatening national defence, probably along with jeopardising local jobs…
With it being wartime, that traditional blank check gets even blanker. Wouldn’t you love to see their classified budget?
The role of the taxpayer is to pay tax, not to argue about how this money is spent !
Oh, wait…
…On a mod they could’ve done in-house with their own armorers. But that’s Delta
“(…)Knights Armament(…)”
Wait… is their name Knights Armament xor Knight’s Armament xor something else.
“(…)Sniper-Grade Carbine(…)”
Could it be classified as Sniper Carbine like https://www.forgottenweapons.com/wwi-steyr-m95-sniper-carbine/ is or not, if latter why not?
“(…)EMC (Enhanced Military Carbines) for replacement with the newer version(…)”
How this affected their naming, did they become Enhanced Enhanced Military Carbines after that or something like this?
It is Knight’s Armament Corporation. Named after the founder Reed Knight.
https://www.knightarmco.com/about-us
Buy once rue for decades. Risk adverse military procurement in the Army results in long procurement cycles giving the “good idea fairies” every opportunity to over design causing overpriced solutions.
Look, I understand the need for Delta to have some specialized weapons, but it seems every time you turn around, the various SOF units are getting rid of what they have in favor of the newest, “greatest” weapons. Are they really that much better, or is it that the they to play with something new on the taxpayer dime…How often does the SAS, GSG9 or Mossad go through this
Delta certainly has the biggest budget of them all, so they can spend that much money. The others are forced by budget constraints to make do with what they have and be creative about it.
It isn’t waste if your friends get the money.