Marines with Silencers in Infantry Battalion

Marines from 2^nd Marine Division will be putting silencers on every weapon in a standard infantry battalion this year, according to a speech by Maj. Gen. Johne Love, the unit’s commander.Every weapon, from M4 rifles all the way up to .50 caliber machine guns, will be outfitted with a silencer in order to test whether or not such a setup would result in increased communication during firefights.“What we’ve found so far is it revolutionizes the way we fight,” said General John Love, in an interview with Military.com. “It used to be a squad would be dispersed out over maybe 100 yards, so the squad leader couldn’t really communicate with the members at the far end because of all the noise of the weapons. Now they can actually just communicate, and be able to command and control and effectively direct those fires.”[caption id="attachment_8975" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

Marines in Afghanistan with an M240 Machine Gun and M4. Both weapons will get silencers during the experiment. Source: Defence Industry Daily[/caption]Two companies in two separate 2^nd Marine Division battalions already have all of their personal weapons outfitted with silencers. Attached units, such as combat engineer platoons, will also have suppressed weapons.

Steep Cost of Silencers Could be Prohibitive

While it is possible to outfit M249 Squad Automatic Weapons and M2 .50 caliber machine guns, the total cost of the equipping a battalion’s weaponry with silencers is around $700,000, a steep price tag for a money-starved Marine Corps.Generally, suppressed weapons are typically only available to snipers, designated marksmen and special operations troops. During the Afghanistan campaign, many infantry squads utilized the Squad Advanced Marksman Rifle, an M-16 based rifle with precision rifle characteristics, which was usually issued with a suppressor.https://youtu.be/ZCZ9Y_0uIBAThat rifle was subsequently replaced by the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, which features a free-floating barrel and precision trigger.Chief Warrant Officer 5 Christian Wade, the division’s gunner, believes that the suppressors will enable infantry units to increase their ability to command and control and coordinate with each other, by reducing artificial stimuli which gives the illusion of effectiveness.In other words, currently, infantry squads may sometimes believe they are being more effective with their fire because of the volume of loud noises they are throwing downrange, not the placement or suppressive effect of their fire on the enemy.