Mk 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle

Development began in 2000 with a request by the United States Navy SEALs for a more compact M14 battle rifle.[8] In 2001, Mike Rock Rifle Barrels was the only rifle barrel maker asked by United States Special Operations Command to participate in a SOPMOD conference to create what would be the Mk 14 Mod 0 EBR, with details that include a collapsible stock that was requested for the new rifle and with an aluminum body with telescopic rails. Mike Rock collaborated with engineer Jim Ribordy to make the new rifle. Tests showed that their rifle was effective, but had excessive noise problems.

U.S. Army service in Afghanistan, September 2010

In 2003, Ron Smith and Smith Enterprise, Inc. created its own version of the M14 EBR (MK14 SEI),[9] which used a medium heavy weight 457 mm (18.0") barrel and was more widely favored than the rifle made by Rock and Ribordy. The Smith Enterprise-based MK14 was then used as a basis to eventually create the Mk 14 Mod 0 with Springfield Armory, Inc. being tasked to supply the necessary machinery needed to create the weapon in cooperation with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division.

United States Navy SEALs were the first to be armed with the EBR in 2004,[6] followed by the U.S. Coast Guard. The U.S. Army also uses the M14 EBR-RI, being created and updated by the Weapons Product Support Integration Directorate of the TACOM Life Cycle Management Command at the Keith L. Ware Test Facility in Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois; having fielded approximately 5,000 units by mid-2010. United States Marine Corps units were also considering the EBR, but wound up instead developing the M39 Enhanced Marksman Rifle.

In early 2017, the Army began writing a new requirement for an SDM rifle for combat platoons and squads. Although the Army has been using the M14 EBR since 2009, they had to be turned in when returning from theater, and it had weight issues being almost 15 lb (6.8 kg) unloaded (citation needed). A new marksman rifle will equip each combat arms squad weighing about 11 lb (5.0 kg) firing standard M80A1 7.62 mm rounds fitted with a rifle optic rather than a telescopic sight.[10] In March 2018, the Army announced that a version of the HK G28, which had already been selected to replace the M110 SASS, would be issued as the service's standard SDMR. Issuing a 7.62 mm SDMR is meant to increase individual squads' ability to defeat enemy body armor that standard 5.56×45mm rounds cannot penetrate. Fielding was planned to start in late 2018.[11]

This weapon upgrades the standard M14 action and replaces the standard 22.0-inch (560 mm) barrel with an 18.0-inch (460 mm) barrel bolted onto a telescoping chassis stock system[7] with a pistol grip, a different front sight, Harris bipod, four Picatinny accessory rails (which surround the barrel),[7] and a more effective flash hider in place of the standard lugged USGI flash suppressor.[12] A paddle-type bolt stop similar to that of the M4 carbine is used on the rifle. The EBR chassis system stock is made up entirely of lightweight aircraft alloy.

A Kydex hand guard and M68 CCO are also added, though they are almost always replaced with a vertical foregrip and magnifying scope for better handling and for use in a designated marksman role. A Wind Talker suppressor can be mounted on the DC Vortex flash hider,[13] though the U.S. military did not adopt one to active service.

Sage International had some involvement in the decision of whether to invest approximately $120,000 in an injection mold incorporating into the design the rail attachments or machine the replacement stock from a solid billet of aluminum with the latter being selected, which was then shown at the SHOT Show in Orlando in 2003.

The Mk 14 has been criticised for being too heavy, at 14 pounds (6.4 kg) when loaded with a 20-round magazine, with most of this weight being at the front of the weapon, making it difficult to aim.[14]

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  A U.S. Army sergeant with the Mk 14 in Afghanistan, 2007
   Australia: Used by the Special Air Service Regiment in anti-Taliban operations.[19][20]
•  Iraq: Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service[21]
•  United States: Used in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan[22]

• List of individual weapons of the U.S. Armed Forces
• List of battle rifles