M82 (rifle)

The M82 rifle is a high-powered heavy sniper rifle developed by the American Barrett Firearms Company. It is currently used by many units and armies around the world, including the American Special Forces. It is also called the "Light Fifty" for its .50 caliber BMG (12.7 mm) load. The weapon is found in two variants—the original M82A1 (and A3) and the bullpup M82A2. The M82A2 is no longer manufactured.

Overview

The Barrett Firearms Company was founded by Ronnie Barrett for the single purpose of building semi-automatic rifles chambered for the hugely powerful .50 BMG ammunition, originally developed for and used in Browning M2 machine guns. Barrett began his work in the early 1980s and the first working rifles were available in 1982, hence the designation M82. Barrett continued to develop his rifle through the 1980s, and developed the improved M82A1 rifle by 1986. The first real success was the purchase of about 100 M82A1 rifles by the Swedish Army in 1989. Major success followed in 1990, when the US Military purchased significant numbers of the M82A1 during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Kuwait and Iraq. About 125 rifles were initially bought by the US Marine Corps, and orders from US Army and Air Force soon followed. The M82A1 is known by the US Military as the SASR — "Special Applications Scoped Rifle", and it was and still is used as an anti-matériel weapon and EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) tool. The long effective range, over 1500 m with a record shot of 2500 m, along with high energy and availability of highly effective ammunition such as API and Raufoss Mk 211, allows for effective operations against targets like radar cabins, trucks, parked aircraft and so on. The M82 can also be used to defeat human targets from standoff range or when targets are behind cover but anti-personnel work is not a major application for the M82 (or any other .50 BMG rifle, for that matter). It is a widespread misconception that a number of treaties have banned use of the .50 BMG against human targets. Recruits have been advised by generations of drill instructors to only aim a .50 BMG at an enemy soldier's web gear or other equipment worn on his body. However, the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's office has issued a legal opinion that the .50 BMG and even the Raufoss Mk 211 round are legal for use against enemy personnel.

Further development led to the M82A2 bullpup rifle in 1987, which was a reduced-recoil design to be fired from the shoulder. It failed to make an impression on the world firearms market, and was soon dropped from production. The M82A2 was intended as a cheap anti-helicopter weapon, suitable for use against highly mobile targets when fired from the shoulder.

The latest derivative of the M82 family is the M82A1M rifle, adopted by USMC as the M82A3 SASR and bought in large numbers. This rifle differs from M82A1 in that it has a full length Picatinny rail that allows a wide variety of scopes and sighting devices to be mounted on the rifle. Other changes are the addition of a rear monopod, slightly lightened mechanism and detachable bipod and muzzle brake.

Another variant of the original weapon is the M82A1A Special Application Scoped Rifle, an almost identical model but specifically designed to fire the Raufoss Mk 211 Mod 0 round, a type of API (armour piercing incendiary) ammunition.^{^*}

Barrett M82 rifles were bought by various military and police forces from at least 30 countries, such as Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK, USA and others. The M82 also is widely used for civilian .50 caliber long range shooting competitions, being fired accurately out to 1000 yards (900 meters) and even further.

According to the documentary The Brooklyn Connection, M82s smuggled into Kosovo by sympathizers in the United States have quickly become popular long range sniper rifles in the Kosovo Liberation Army. In Northern Ireland during the 1990s, the South Armagh unit of the IRA maintained a sniping campaign against the British Army and RUC police. The Barrett rifle was used, and in 1997 killed the last British soldier killed in Northern Ireland, Stephen Restorick. The .50cal round seemed to defeat all body armour it met. Later the top IRA sniper, Michael Caraher, was arrested and his Barrett rifle captured by British forces.

As a side note, the Barrett M82A1 rifle was used in 2002 as a platform for the experimental OSW (Objective Sniper Weapon) prototype. This weapon was fitted with a shorter barrel of 25 mm caliber, and fired low-velocity high explosive shells developed for the 25 mm OCSW automatic grenade launcher. The experimental OSW showed an increased effectiveness against various targets but the recoil was beyond human limitations. This weapon, also known as the Barrett 'Payload Rifle', has now been designated the XM109.

The M82 has been redesignated in the US Army as the M107. Initially the Army issued a requirement for a bolt-action .50 BMG sniper weapon, and then selected the Barrett M95. However, it was then decided that a bolt-action rifle was in fact not what the US Army was looking for. Unfortunately, money had already been allotted in the budget for an "XM107" rifle, so they decided to redesignate the M82A1M/A3 to XM107 in order to purchase more of those rifles. There is no difference between the XM107 and the M82A1M/A3. See the M107 entry for more information on differences between XM107s and production M107s.

Technical Description

The M82 is a short recoil semi-automatic firearm. When the gun is fired, the barrel initially recoils for a short distance (about an inch/25 mm) being securely locked by the rotating bolt. After the short travel, a post on the bolt engaged in the curved cam track in the receiver turns the bolt to unlock it from the barrel. As soon as the bolt unlocks, the accelerator arm strikes it back, transferring part of the recoil energy of the barrel to the bolt to achieve reliable cycling. Then the barrel is stopped and the bolt continues back, to extract and eject a spent case. On its return stroke, the bolt strips the fresh cartridge from the box magazine and feeds it into the chamber and finally locks itself to the barrel. The striker also is cocked on the return stroke of the bolt. The gun is fed from a large detachable box magazine holding up to 10 rounds.

The receiver is made from two parts (upper and lower), stamped from sheet steel and connected by cross-pins. The heavy barrel is fluted to improve heat dissipation and save weight, and fitted with a large and effective reactive muzzle brake. On the earlier models the muzzle brakes had a round cross-section, later M82 rifles are equipped with two-chamber brakes of rectangular cross-section.

M82A1 rifles are fitted with scope mount and folding backup iron sights, should the glass scope break. M82 rifles are often equipped with Leupold M series 10x telescope sights. The M82A1M (USMC M82A3) rifles have long Picatinny accessory rails mounted. Every M82 rifle is equipped with a folding carrying handle and a folding bipod (both are detachable on the M82A3). The M82A3 is also fitted with a detachable rear monopod under the butt. The buttpad is fitted with a soft recoil pad to further decrease the felt recoil. M82A1 and M82A3 rifles could be mounted on the M3 or M122 infantry tripods (originally intended for machine guns) or on vehicles using the special Barrett soft-mount. The M82A1 can be fitted with a carry sling but according to those who carried it in the field, the M82 is much too uncomfortable to be carried on a sling due to its excessive length and heavy weight. It is usually carried in a special carry soft or hard case.

The M82A2 differed from M82A1 mostly in its configuration—that the pistol grip along with trigger had been placed ahead of the magazine, and the buttpad has been placed below the receiver, just after the magazine. An additional forward grip was added below the receiver, and the scope mount has been moved forward too.

The Barrett M82 has been seen in a number of Hollywood action films (e.g Navy SEALs, RoboCop), often depicted with exaggerated capabilities. Misconceptions include being able to shoot down airliners; while the M82 was designed to disable parked aircraft, it is extremely unlikely that even the most highly trained marksman would be able to bring down a flying airplane firing the entire 10-round magazine, let alone one shot. With the advent of the autocannon, the .50 BMG is no longer used for fighter plane combat since it was shown to be ineffective for that purpose since World War II.

Specifications

M82A1

Caliber: .50 BMG (12.7 x 99 mm)
Operation: short recoil, semi-automatic
Overall length: 1448 mm
Barrel length: 737 mm
Feed device: 10-round detachable box magazine
Sights: 10x telescopic
Mass: 12.9 kg empty
Muzzle velocity: 854 m/s (M33 Ball)
Max effective range: 1800 m
Expected accuracy: 1.5 to 2.0 MOA or better

M82A2

Length: 1448 mm
Barrel length: 737 mm
Mass: 14.75 kg (unloaded)
Maximum effective range on equipment-sized targets: 1800 m
Muzzle velocity: 854 m/s
Magazine capacity: 10 rounds
Unit replacement cost: $6,000
Status: Prototype no longer in production

In fiction

As the M82 is considered one of the heaviest sniper rifles, it has become an iconic sniper weapon.

Films

In the film RoboCop M82 rifles were used as props for the 'Cobra Assault Cannon', a weapon that was fired from the hip and utilised armour-piercing, explosive rounds. These weapons were issued to gangsters with the intent of hunting down and killing RoboCop.

In the film "Versus" an M82 rifle is used by a couple of characters as a sort of joke weapon. A particular moment of note is when one of the movie's antagonists attempts to dodge a single shot from the M82 by the protagonist, Prisoner KSC2-303, in a mockingly Matrix-esque/Neo manner and fails miserably as he is blown to bits just as ED-209 was in the first "Robocop" film.

The character Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) uses an M82A1 several times in the TV series based on the Tremors movies, as well as a single-shot, bolt-action .50 caliber rifle similar in design and appearance to the M82 in the second movie.

In the Mecha anime Full Metal Panic, in "The Wind Blows At Home", the sniper rifle used by ARX-7 Arbalest is a large M82.

In Matthew Reilly's Seven Ancient Wonders, Stretch uses an ultralong Barrett M82A1A sniper rifle.

Games

The M82 is featured as the sniper rifle in many games, including The Novalogic Delta Force (computer game) series, the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six series, U.S. Navy SEALs, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, The Omega Strain, Dark Mirror, Special Forces, Soldat, Blood 2, Enter the Matrix, Black Hawk Down, and although replaced by the M95 and not included in the final release version, Battlefield 2 (the weapon info still remains in the program files) .

The M82A1 is also seen in the Conflict series.

External links

Cold War firearms of the United States | Modern firearms of the United States | Semi-automatic rifles | Sniper rifles

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