Special operators are getting a new rifle that can fire both 7.62mm and 6.5mm Creedmoor rounds as a replacement for the MK17 SCAR-H Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle-Heavy, according to U.S. Special Operations Command.
The MK24 Mid-Range Gas Gun-Assault features a “quick-change swappable barrel” that allows the weapon to fire both kinds of ammunition, said Navy Cmdr. Joe Vermette, a spokesperson for U.S. Special Operations Command.
Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, expects to begin receiving the MK24 later this fiscal year, which runs until Sept. 30, and the rifle will be fielded to “multiple SOF components,” Vermette wrote in an email to Task & Purpose.
“The weapon is currently in production and is a direct replacement for the MK17,” Vermette wrote. “SOCOM is pursuing a rapid fielding method that will begin this fiscal year,” Vermette said.
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Chambering the 6.5mm Creedmoor round gives the MK24 a range of more than 1,200 meters, Vermette wrote, adding that the new rifle has less recoil than the FN SCAR, in use by the U.S. military as the MK17, and its “architecture” is similar to an M4 carbine.
Special Operations Command began fielding the MK17 in 2009, with units deployed to Afghanistan heavily utilizing the high-powered rifle in the years since. In the decade and a half since, SOCOM has been looking for a new weapon that can fit specific operational needs.
In August 2025, LMT Defense, in Eldridge, Iowa, was awarded a “10-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract” of up to $92 million for Mid-Range Gas Gun-Assault kits, spare parts and accessories, new equipment training, and engineering change proposals.
The version of the MK24 that LMT has shown publicly has a 14.5-inch barrel along with ambidextrous controls, said Joseph Hajny, business development manager for LMT Defense.
The weapon weighs 9.2 pounds without its magazine or accessories, Hajny told Task & Purpose.
“The MK24 brings new overmatch to warfighters with a multicaliber weapon system that has both ambidextrous as well as familiar controls, advanced modularity and capability with a quick-change barrel and monolithic upper, improved ergonomics, and other various performance enhancements that increase lethality,” Hajny said.
By being able to switch between the 7.62 mm and the 6.5mm Creedmoor rounds, the new rifle “kind of solves the extended range for those mid-range calibers,” Army Lt. Col. Alan Wood, SOCOM’s product manager of Special Operations Forces (SOF) Lethality, said in a recent interview with The War Zone.
“It’s just a phenomenal, accurate weapon system for our SOF operators,” Wood said during last week’s SOF Week exhibition in Tampa, Florida. “All the components are super excited about this one.”
Wood noted that SOCOM has already been fielding the Mid-Range Gas Gun-Sniper variant since 2023.
