S.W.O.R.D., or “Special Warfare Operations Research and Development,” is a relatively new player in the firearms industry. Founded by ex-special forces soldiers, it is trying to use some of their SpecOps experiences to help them design awesome guns. And this, my friends, is definitely awesome.

The rifle is based on their S.W.O.R.D. MK-15 mod 0 billet CNC machined 70/75 Aircraft Grade Aluminum upper and low receiver in “gun metal grey” and uses a Midwest Industries free floated rail and 16″ 1:8 twist 300 AAC BLK barrel.

It just screams “badass.” Lightweight, well designed and accurate. Damn near perfect. All it needs is a can. No word on pricing yet.

[h/t Predator Intel]

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26 COMMENTS

  3. I don’t see what’s so special about this gun. It looks unnecessarily heavy with that super-long handguard, they didn’t use a flash hider with support for QD suppressors, and the handguard rail doesn’t even seem to be flush with the receiver rail.

    FAIL.

    • If nothing else, the rails being that far out of spec would be a deal breaker for me. I hope this is a prototype.

      Also, who wants a 16″ barrel on a .300 BLK upper? Go SBR or go 5.56×45.

      • Also, who wants a 16″ barrel on a .300 BLK upper? Go SBR or go 5.56×45.

        Answer: Anyone interested in 300 BLK without any NFA hassles.

        • Right, but what does .300 BLK do for you out of a 16″ barrel that 5.56×45 can’t do?

          The big attraction to .300 BLK is its suppressed performance out of a short barrel. If you’re not willing to go through the NFA hassle, save your money and get a vanilla AR.

    • They couldn’t machine their own quad? No link to their website, or how much it weighs either?

    • The rails most likely are flush, and even look it if you really examine the picture. The perceived offset is due to a common optical illusion that occures when transitioning from a light color to a dark color.

      The barrel does seem rather long for the round, but it is touted as being lightweight and mostly aluminum. I guess we will have to wait for the specs to know if this is truly as advertised.

      My biggest gripe is why no underbarrel rail? I personally hate shooting with those types of handguards, and so would want to add a foregrip to this but that doesn’t look like an easy thing to do.

      • Look at that top pic again. My eyes may be playing tricks on me, but the MI rail looks to be a good 1mm or so lower than the receiver rail.

        I’m not familiar with that particular handguard, but it probably has modular rail sections. I’ll bet you could add a 4″ section of rail anywhere you want one.

        • yep, the quad certainly is not flush with the rail on the upper receiver, i’m not sure if it is 1mm but it is there. and why have a silver receiver with a black rail?

      • Funny that you find underbarrel rails to be a big feature, because I find full length underbarrel rails very uncomfortable to hold. I unscrewed the one off my YHM smooth handguard for that very reason. How much rail do I need for a VFG light/laser combo and a second light? Not so much. Hell, the top rail is mostly superfluous, too; I’d love to be able to yank most of that off as well.

    • Fully agree…don’t see anything special about this setup. Handguard too long. No lower rail. WRONG choice in stock. Looks nice I guess. 😉

    • I don’t know anything about this company, but I did want to chime in on the rail. I do own one of the 15″ers and am only about 250 rounds into working with it, but here are some thoughts:

      – If you believe manufacture websites, this weighs in at 10.9 oz and magpuls rifle length MOE hand guard is 12.13oz. I did not weigh mine, but its pretty damn light, especially for 15″ of hand guard.

      – The fact that it lets me get my grip out as far out as possible really increases the point-and-shoot-ability (not a word) of the gun. IMHO this more than negates any added weight when it comes to handling. I dont know about carrying it over the mountains of the hindu kush…

      – The fact that the rail is not flush with my upper was kind of a pain in the ass. I had to move my 512 back a rung on the flat top.

      Also, I dont work for MI either.

    • Holy cow, thanks Steve! I’ve been going back and forth on whether I should take a plunge with the MGI Hydra because I keep reading so many contrary accounts about their customer service, performance, reliability etc. etc.

      I seriously want a 7.62×39 in an AR platform and already have a Colt. But the attempt to use fully loaded mags on this platform has led to a lot of problems for me and I’ve been looking for this sort of a solution for a while now. I hope this is the ticket for me (finally!) Even at $1.2k which may be a little over my budget… Again thanks Steve. This is the reason I love TTAG!

      • I just had one made. The firing pin point needs to be about .030 inches longer than the standard AR firing pin. I ran 300 rounds through it last week to break it in using Tula Ammo.
        Two Failure to Feed out of the first 30 round magazine. After that – no problems. I will put many more rounds through it before I make a call on it So far so good now. 30 round Magazines are curved and not straight.. The ergonomics are very good. It is accurate with the testing I have done so far.

  9. Do they have a website?
    I would like to see the spec.s.
    Too many guesses as to the spec.s

  10. Why is there only one company in the world that makes AR-15 ejection port covers, and why do they suck SO HARD at metal finishing?

    I swear to god I’ve never seen an AR EP cover that didn’t look like it was made in 1968 and then thrown into a box with a million other ones covered in cosmolene.

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