XM107/M107 Barrett rifle

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M107 diagram

The M107 Long Range Sniper Rifle is a semi-automatic .50 BMG sniper rifle adopted by the U.S. Army in the early 2000s, and is also sold as the Barret M107 commercially. It is a new designation of the M82 Special Applications Scoped Rifle (which has also been commercially available from Barrett as the M82 series) in the US military. The M107 is used for traditional sniper tasks, but is especially useful for long-range, counter-sniper, and anti-materiel roles over more traditional smaller bore sniper rifles.

There are no significant differences between the Barrett M82A1M/M82A3 and the M107. However, production M107s appear to have the addition of a rear monopod and there are rumors of internal improvements as well, but information has not been widely available.

The M107 was voted one of 2005's Top 10 Military Inventions by the U.S. Army.^[1]

1 Overview
- 1.1 Barrett M107CQ
2 General characteristics
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Overview

The XM107 was originally intended to be a bolt-action sniper rifle, and in fact it was selected by the U.S. Army in a competition between such weapons. However, the decision was made that the US Army did not, in fact, require such a weapon. The rifle originally selected under the trials to be the XM107 was the Barrett M95.

M107 front view

When the Army decided it no longer needed these weapons it found that it had money already allotted for "XM107 rifles," and rather than deal with this complication, the decision was made to change the M82 Rifle's designation to M107, and use the money to purchase those type of rifles instead. In summer 2005, the M82 finally emerged from its Army trial phase and was approved for "full materiel release", meaning it was officially adopted as the Long Range Sniper Rifle, Caliber .50, M107.

The Barrett XM107 is a .50 caliber, shoulder fired, semi-automatic, sniper rifle. Like its predecessors the rifle is said to have manageable recoil for a weapon of its size owing to the barrel assembly that itself absorbs force, moving inward toward the receiver against large springs with every shot. Additionally the weapon's weight and large muzzle brake also assist in recoil reduction. Barrett has recently been tasked with developing a lightweight version of the M107 under the "Anti-Material Sniper Rifle Congressional Program," and has already come up with a scheme to build important component parts such as the receiver frame and muzzle brake out of lighter weight materials.

The Barrett XM107 and M107, like previous members of the M82 line, are also referred to as the Barrett "Light Fifty".

[edit] Barrett M107CQ

A commercial development of the "new" M107, the M107CQ is specifically designed where the firepower of a .50 caliber rifle is required, but the bulk of the M82/M107 series prevents the weapon from being used. The M107CQ is 9" shorter in overall length (all in the barrel) and 5 pounds lighter than the M107. According to the manufacturer the M107CQ is suitable for "use in helicopters, force protection watercraft, tactical scout land vehicles and as an urban soldiers combat multiplier for the close quarter battles of today."^[2]