307 Marine Battalion & SIG 550

At wikipedia... i read that this:

" Romania: Small numbers of the SG 551 LB employed by the 307th Marine Battalion."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIG_SG_550

It is true or not? Anyone knows?

Yes, they use it:


as well as the short barrel version (don't know what's the exact designation, SG 551?)



This post has been edited by Vici on August 02, 2009 06:34 pm

As always ... it seems that every one does what ever they want.
SOF use G-36, Marine Batallion Sig's , SPP use Steir AUG's...

At least they have the same caliber

Normally aquisition of a new weapon should be the result of a centraly led program.

On the other hand, are this new weapons or some surplus? This would explain the heterogenous colection of weapons.

The same situation appears when you look at the helmets. Some still use the old romanian helmet, some the new, some american-type PASSGT helmets.

This post has been edited by Hadrian on August 03, 2009 09:13 pm

The 307th Marine Battalion has between 550-650 Sig-550's, I believe that they are new builds and not surplus!

See also here, towards the bottom of the page: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showt...anian-Army-pics

It is true, but only for regular forces. Special Forces, as the forces attached to secret services, can made their choice about the individual armament they used in aplications and missions. For protocol and other public services (press conferences, defilations) they used standard weapons.

It is true, but only for regular forces. Special Forces, as the forces attached to secret services, can made their choice about the individual armament they used in aplications and missions. For protocol and other public services (press conferences, defilations) they used standard weapons.

Well, marines arent Special Forces, just some elite troops from regular forces, as mountain hunters and paratroopers. I think this was mostly a caprice of comander of General Staff, who is a navy admiral (a weird thing if it is by me, but this is probably due to the fact that supreme comander, the president, is a former captain on civil navy ship). I dont see any other reason to use that rifle (who, btw, has a diferent calibre then usual army rifles, so another logistic problems), especialy since i saw the real navy special forces (combat divers) using as assault rifle the PA md 86. And, if we'll go to 5,56x45 mm as all the army, i think is better to have a unitar equipment, and made localy. Just special forces to use anything they see fit for their missions, who can be (and usual are) different then regular forces, or in more diferent enviroments and situations (need silencers, weapons for close combat and hostage rescues or short enough to be hidden or not too cumbersome since they can carry a lot of other things with them, more then a usual soldier).