FN GUNS FOR AFGHANISTAN

[BIZ: Liège, August 23]
US forces want to equip their special units in Afghanistan with Belgian weapons. This will be the 5.56mm Scar rifle developed initially and produced in Herstal, near Liège, though it will be manufactured in the US FN plant. The US army requires 1,600 of these new weapons and in the coming years the total is expected to rise to 10,000.

The FN SCAR® family of weapons consists of the 5.56mm SCAR® rifle, 7.62mm SCAR® rifle and 40mm LV Enhanced Grenade Launcher Module (respectively designated as MK 16, MK 17 and MK 13 by USSOCOM). These three components were developed by FN Herstal in close cooperation with United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and have each met all the operational and fielding tests required by the program. This resulted in the notification by USSOCOM last May that the full SCAR® system entered into Milestone C phase, allowing production and deployment of the full range of SCAR® weapons. The 5.56 version will be part of USSOCOM's inventory.

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