The US Army and ILC are armed with dozens of sniper rifle models. These are semi-automatic rifles of the M14 and M110 series under.308Win and modifications of the M16 under.223Rem, as well as various large-caliber models from Barrett under.50BMG. Non-automatic rifles, such as the legendary M40 of the Marine Corps and other models based on the Remington 700. In addition to rifles developed in the United States, the army and the ILC also receive products from foreign companies - FN Hestral, MacMillan, Accuracy International, etc. The main feature that unites all these weapons is that they are designed for army supplies and use ammunition interchangeable with other types of weapons. US SOCOM (United States Special Operations Command), unlike "ordinary" units, does not have strict supply restrictions and uses weapons and ammunition that best suit their tasks. The result of this was various modifications of army weapons for new ammunition, for example, the M24 under.338LapuaMagnum in the M24A3 modification for army special forces or the Mk13 mod1 under.300WinchesterMagnum, which is essentially the R700 in the AICS box for special units of the ILC and the fleet.
The use of various models and their variations by special operations units leads to an unnecessary burden on logistics and supply, and also does not allow the introduction of uniform training standards and the use of jointly units assigned to different types of troops with maximum efficiency. In order to unify, US SOCOM announces a tender in February 2009 for the development and supply of a new sniper rifle. According to the terms of the competition, contractors (manufacturers) must develop a shooting complex that fully meets the presented requirements and on March 3, 2010, submit several samples for testing at US SOCOM.
The main requirements of the PSR (Precision Sniper Rifle) competition are as follows:
Only commercially produced ammunition from the CIP or SAAMI register can be used to power the rifle complex;
The design of the rifle complex provides the ability to fire from both the right and left shoulder;
The rifle complex must ensure the destruction of the target at all practical ranges up to 1500, demonstrating the accuracy of no more than MOA in a series of 10 shots;
The design of the shooting complex must provide at least 1000 rounds of delay;
The total length of the shooting complex (without a silencer) should not exceed 52 "(1320 mm), during transportation no more than 40" (1016 mm);
The mass of the rifle complex with a loaded magazine for 5 rounds should not exceed 18 pounds (8 kg);
Disassembly / assembly of the rifle complex into the main components should not take more than 2 minutes;
Dismantling and subsequent assembly of the rifle complex should not lead to the movement of "zero" and not require re-zeroing;
The shooting complex should be pleased with the possibility of mounting additional equipment on the Picatinny rails (MilStd 1913) in any position on all sides of the forearm;
Many companies expressed their intention to participate in the competition, among which were the most eminent manufacturers of high-precision sniper rifles, one of such companies was Accuracy International. Unfortunately, none of the company's products met the requirements of US SOCOM and the company's management decided to develop a new model based on the AW series within the customer's year allotted for this. The result of the work of the design team was the Accuracy International AX rifle presented on January 19, 2010 in Las Vegas.
The new rifle, like most of the company's products, has an aluminum support rail to which the receiver, stock elements, etc. are attached. In the new rifle, the developer used the experience gained when creating the AW50 rifle, the carrier tire of which was not completely covered with nylon pads and had a thickening in the area of the receiver and cartridge, which made it possible to more efficiently distribute the force transmitted from the receiver to the stock by the recoil paw, which favorably affects the accuracy of the rifle. The rear part of the carrier tire is covered with a nylon pad, which forms a fire control handle, and ends with a butt attachment / turning unit. In the front part, the tire is covered with an overlay that provides a comfortable holding of the rifle with a "weak" hand, and has attachment points for the rifle forend. The fore-end is an octagonal frame rigidly fixed to the carrier rail, the edges of which are equipped with attachment points that allow the installation of platforms with guides, various pads or additional equipment. This design of the forend combines ample opportunities for placing bipods, sights and attachments for them, laser targeting units and additional handles with effective removal of hot air from the barrel through unused mounting holes. The fore-end mounting rail is available in two versions, with a 13 "or 16" useful length. The rifle stock - open parts of the carrier tire and forend, as well as the linings, can be painted in three basic colors - black, green or yellow-brown, as well as in any other color at the request of a large customer (for example, US SOCOM), as was done on ShotShow.
The barrel of the new rifle is similar to that of the AW series, with a sleek outer profile in.308Win and a dollar profile in.300WM and.338LM. For the new rifle, a two-chamber flash suppressor was developed (previously, a single chamber was used on the AW series) for the.308Win caliber, for the.300WM and.338LM, a flash suppressor borrowed from the AW series in the appropriate calibers is used. The barrel is installed in the receiver in the same way as on other rifles of the company - it is screwed in. Also identical to the AW series and the solution for installing the receiver on a carrier rail - bolts and epoxy resin. A Picatinny rail is installed on the upper edge of the receiver for mounting any optical or electro-optical sights. The bolt group installed in the receiver is identical to that of the AW series in caliber.308Win, but the bolt group in calibers.300WM and.338LM has undergone some changes. The diameter of the bolt stem was increased from 20 mm to 22 mm to cover more than half the length of the bolt, which has a positive effect on the reliability and reliability of the bolt group in difficult conditions, contributes to the destruction of the ice crust, squeezing out sand and other foreign bodies caught on the stem. shutter, as well as the accumulation of excess grease. The fuse block has remained the same and, like on the AW, has a flag fuse with three positions - fire is allowed, the striker and the free breech block, the striker and the breech block. Also, the locking scheme, the design of the extractor and the striker have not changed. The trigger of the rifle, as before on the AW with a warning, has a force adjustment in the range of 1.5 to 2 kg, but the trigger adjustment range has been increased to 13 mm. The shutter group, as before, has an anti-icing coating, and the receiver and other metal parts have an anti-corrosion coating. The rifle is powered in the same way as before from box magazines, with a capacity of 10 rounds for.308Win with a two-row arrangement and single-row for 5 rounds for.300WM and.338LM. A cutout has been made in the carrier rail, which contributes to greater comfort when handling the magazine.
The fire control handle and stock are offered in two versions, in the version that copies the design of the already classic F stock for the AW series, or in a new version, which structurally repeats the butt used by the company in the Covert rifle. In the second case, the pistol grip is not closed and has the ability to adjust its shape by changing the inserts on the back. The shape of the handle is maximally adapted for high-precision shooting, due to the angle of the handle and the position of the hand on it. Regardless of the version, the butt has an angle adjustment of the butt of the butt in the plane perpendicular to the rifle axis and in height, adjustment along the length of the butt, due to spacers and adjustment of the neck height. On both sides, the butt is equipped with anabi for the belt, as well as a new design monopod in the cutout for the "weak" hand. Unlike the old washer-retainer design, the AX uses a push-button release. The height of the monopod is 115 mm, it is possible to order a two-step monopod. A Picatinny rail can be installed on the underside of the stock.
For the PSR competition, Accuracy International presented a.338LM rifle with a 27 "(685 mm) barrel and 16" mounting rail, as well as an adjustable pistol grip. The rifle passed according to all the formal criteria of the competition and was accepted for testing, which will roughly end in the summer of 2010. The rifle is also offered in various calibers and versions for the civilian market, and Accuracu International dealers in the United States are accepting pre-orders for the purchase. Unlike the basic models intended for the armed forces, dealers offer rifles to civilian buyers in calibers.338LM,.300WM,.308Win,.243 Win,.260 Rem, 6.5 Creedmoor. The company also took into account the experience of sales of previous series and offers not only a rifle, but also a separate AICS AX stock for the Remington 700 bolt action groups.
