The Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) was a program by United States Special Operations Command to replace all bolt-action sniper rifles in use by United States special operations snipers with a single bolt-action rifle chambered for a large caliber Magnum round such as .300 Win Mag and .338 Lapua Magnum. The solicitation was placed on January 15, 2009. The contract was awarded to the Remington Modular Sniper Rifle and was designated the Mk 21 Precision Sniper Rifle.

History

A 2008 United States military market survey for a Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) called for 1 minute of arc (0.3 milliradian) extreme vertical spread for all shots in a 5-round group fired at targets at 300, 600, 900, 1,200 and 1,500 meters. In 2009, a United States Special Operations Command market survey called for 1 MOA (0.3 mrad) extreme vertical spread for all shots in a 10-round group fired at targets at 300, 600, 900, 1,200 and 1,500 meters. The 2009 Precision Sniper Rifle requirements stated that the PSR when fired without suppressor should provide a confidence factor of 80% that the weapon and ammunition combination is capable of holding 1 MOA extreme vertical spread, calculated from 150 ten (10) round groups fired unsuppressed. No individual group to exceed 1.5 MOA (0.5 mrad) extreme vertical spread. All accuracy taken at the 1,500-meter point. Other requirements include a weight of less than 18 pounds loaded, the use of Picatinny rails, and an easily changeable barrel.

Tender criteria

Sniper Rifle requirements included:

PSR contenders

Contenders for the contract included:

Selection

On March 8, 2013, Remington announced that the Remington MSR had won the contract, beating out the Sako TRG M10. The contract is worth US$79.7 million for 5,150 rifles including suppressors, and 4,696,800 rounds of ammunition over the following ten years.

Re-competition

In 2018, it was decided that the Mk 21 did not conform to SOCOM requirements at the time, and the program was re-competed. In 2019, the Barrett MRAD was selected, becoming the Mk 22 Advanced Sniper Rifle.