SOPMOD Projection...
 

Interesting read.

www.dtic.mil/ndia/2006smallarms/taylor.pdf

Interesting
 

Exactly how much OPERATOR input is actually taken into account for weapons systems programs ??

As long as Gus Taylor is there SOLDIERs will have input. He is one of ours (my Company CO in 3/7). He has always been an advocate of putting the right tools where soldiers can use them. (He likes gadgets too!) A lot of crap (politics & money) goes into what ends up on the street but users will at least have an opportunity to speak out and be heard. Remember - Crane works for the Navy too (primarilly IIRC). NSW has contributed (forced) a real "mixed bag" of small arms developments (completely out of proportion to their actual size/requirements) over the years. FWIW - Peregrino

+1. He was our CO at C 3/7. "He likes gadgets" may be the understatement of the year. LOL

Gus is good people.

I did a written AAR on the short comings of the SOPMOD gen one ITI VLI tac light back in 2000. I compared the light and its lack of performance coupled with prices for spare parts as compared to COTS sure-fire lights. I got prices and mean failure rates and sent them up through my chain of command (I was an E-6 squad leader at the time).

As E-mails usually do, it got passed up the chain of command to our FORCE MOD officer and eventually found its way into Gus's in-box. Gus shotgunned my E-mail out to all of the commands highlighting my observations and described the VLI as "a personal embarrassment to the SOPMOD program".

I condsidered this to be an exremely honorable act from the SOPMOD program manager and the VLI was relplaced with the sure-fire during the block II upgrades.

The VLI was only adopted because some knuckle head (who was a end user-action guy) specified in the requirements document that the light had to be able to run off of AA batteries as a back up if 123A's were not available in the field. Although a great idea on paper it took 6 AA's to get the 9V needed for the lamp and weighed the rifle down like a brick (no offense to the hose clamp/mag light old school crowd. The CAR-15 weighed 5.9 lbs unloaded and could handle the weight, the M-4A1 was not as light).

Bottom line is that Gus fields sysems based upon OUR requirements. we get what we ask for, so we better not ask for stupid stuff (Ala the BALCs armor with vertical MOLLE attachment points because the SEALs wanted their pouches to mount sideways and the SF guy missed the meeting, so the entire SF command was fieled some ghetto vest carrier because they were not there to get a vote.)

I am generally happy with the SOPMOD program and its manager. I place Gus squarely in the "good guy" catagory.

This area of Force MOD has seen improvement – My view from the foxhole X number of budget dollars/funding and how it is sprinkled across several projects to keep them alive and fruitful. I can only hope when we do receive our projected Block II it comes complete. I do not want to be the one telling guys, “Here is your rail but your optics will be fielded about 2 months from now…until we are BOI complete.”

And the MK13 is one sweet rifle.

I spoke to Gus a few years back to get 'his' input into some crap going on in Canada. I was very impressed with his candor and knowledge level that I totaly never guessed he had been an officer ;) Until told afterwards exactly who he was and what he had done.