United States Marine Corps noncommissioned officer's sword
The Marine Corps noncommissioned officer's sword is a sword worn by noncommissioned officers (NCOs) and staff noncommissioned officers (SNCOs) of the United States Marine Corps. The NCO sword was adopted in 1859 and is patterned after the United States Army's foot officers' sword of 1850. The M1859 NCO sword continues service today as the Marine Corps drill and ceremonial sword. The sword's use is restricted by regulation to ceremonial occasions by an NCO or Staff NCO in command of troops under arms or at weddings and wedding receptions where at least one of those being married is in uniform and has the rank of Corporal or higher.
M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle
In early 2017, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller said he wanted to equip every "0311" rifleman with an M27 IAR. Because of that, the Marine Corps issued a request in early 2017 for 11,000 M27 IARs from H&K. While talking about the Corps' request, Chris Woodburn, deputy of the Maneuver Branch, Fires and Maneuver Integration at Marine Corps Combat Development Command, said "The new order will replace all M4s in every infantry squad with an M27, except for the squad leader." He also stated that the change includes infantry training battalions. The timeline for funding was planned for fiscal years 2019 and 2020, with the Corps acquiring some of the rifles in fiscal year 2018. As of August 2017, officials have stated that "riflemen are the top priority," but that the M27 "will be in the hands of combat engineers and light armored reconnaissance battalion scouts next." The Corps later issued a pre-solicitation notice for the M27. "The new pre-solicitation notice of 50,184 [M27s]," said Woodburn, "is [meant] to up the production capacity that H&K must be able to meet as the sole-source provider [of the M27], should the Marines decide to order more in the future." At SHOT Show 2018, the Marine Corps announced that the deal with H&K to produce 11,000 M27s for the Marine Corps had been finalized and that the M27 IAR would be adopted as the standard issue service rifle of the Marine Corps infantry, replacing the M4A1.