The US military's newest sniper rifle of choice appears to be the Barrett Multi-Role Adaptive Design (MRAD) bolt-action rifle, a weapon in which the Army, Marines, and special operators have all expressed interest, Task & Purpose first reported, citing budget documents.

The multi-caliber sniper rifle "gives more flexibility to the sniper as to what configuration to put it in and what targets they are going after" because the weapon can be chambered in three different calibers, a US Army lethality subject matter expert told Insider.

The Army, as part of its Precision Sniper Rifle program, and the Marine Corps, as part of the Advanced Sniper Rifle program, requested a total of 786 MRAD rifles for about $14 million in their latest budget requests.

The MRAD rifle these services want is the same weapon that US Special Operations Command awarded Barrett a nearly $50 million contract for in March of last year.

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US military snipers in the Army, Marines, and the special operations community are getting new bolt-action sniper rifles, and they all want a certain one from Barrett.

The preferred choice is the Barrett Multi-Role Adaptive Design (MRAD) rifle, Task & Purpose first reported, citing budget documents and previous contracting information.

Rather than force snipers to choose between weapons capable of firing different rounds for different purposes, the multi-caliber rifle can be chambered in 7.62X51 mm NATO, .300 Norma Magnum, and .338 Norma Magnum.

Barrett Multi-Role Adaptive Design (MRAD) bolt-action sniper rifle. Courtesy photo

"There are three ranges associated with the three calibers, and there are different target sets that we are trying for at those ranges," Army Lt. Col. Chris Kennedy, the lethality branch chief for the soldier division at the Maneuver Center of Excellence, told Insider.

"It gives more flexibility to the sniper as to what configuration to put it in and what targets they are going after," he added.

In its fiscal year 2021 budget request, the Army asked for 536 MRAD sniper rifles for a little over $10 million for the Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) program. The Marine Corps, which is also buying MRAD rifles for the Advanced Sniper Rifle (ASR) program, estimated that each one would cost about $16,000.

The Army's latest budget request described the rifle as "a multi-caliber, bolt-action sniper rifle, which is effective against personnel and material targets at extreme ranges." The weapon is expected to replace the Army's M2010 and M107 sniper rifles.

"What we are trying to achieve is to collapse those two systems into one instead of having the sniper choose one or the other," Kennedy told Insider.

The Army PSR, not to be confused with the older special operations PSR, is expected to be lighter, more accurate, and have a greater range than legacy systems.

The rifle, the budget request said, also "includes a sound suppressor and direct view optics (with fire control capabilities), which allows snipers, when supplemented with a clip-on image intensifier or thermal sensor system, to effectively engage enemy snipers, as well as crew served and indirect fire weapons virtually undetected in any light condition."

The goal is to offer a passive sighting system that is not emitting anything that could give away a sniper's position, Kennedy said.

The Army's PSR is the same MRAD rifle for which Special Operations Command offered Barrett a nearly $50 million contract last year. It was selected for the command's ASR program as a replacement for the older PSR for special operations snipers, Military Times reported last March.

In the Department of the Navy's fiscal year 2021 budget proposal, the Marines included a $4 million request for 250 Barrett multi-caliber sniper rifles. The service wants the new rifles to "replace all current bolt-action sniper rifles in the Marine Corps."

The recent budget request describes the rifle, part of the ASR program, as a "multi-caliber system featuring extended range, greater lethality and a wider variety of special purpose ammunition than current systems."

The purpose of the PSR and ASR programs, according to the budget documents, is to provide US military snipers with capable modern rifles that will allow them to maintain standoff and overmatch against near-peer competitors.