Mk 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle

Development began in 2000 with a request by United States Navy SEALs for a more compact M14 battle rifle.[6] 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),[7] 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, followed by the U.S. Coast Guard. The U.S. Army also uses with the M14EBR-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.

Users have praised the weapon for its ergonomics, low recoil, and low cost, as well as having the option of various optics and accessories. It could change all "surplus M14s into modern battle rifles". The rifle has seen limited service outside of the U.S., primarily with the Australian SASR in their Afghanistan deployment.

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 M14EBR 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. 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.[8] 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.[9]

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[5] with a pistol grip, a different front sight, Harris bipod, four Picatinny accessory rails (which surround the barrel),[5] and a more effective flash hider in place of the standard lugged USGI flash suppressor.[10] 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,[11] 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.

• 
  U.S. Army Sgt. Klye Edwards, from Reconnaissance Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, looks through the scope of his Mk 14 rifle onto a mortar range near Ghazni, Afghanistan, on April 1, 2007.
• 
  U.S. Army Spc. Michael Rockwell, a combat infantryman with 1st Platoon, Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army Europe, scans the surrounding mountains for threats during a patrol outside Forward Operating Base Baylough in Zabul province, Afghanistan, on June 12, 2010.
• 
  The M14 EBR provides infantry squads with the capability to engage enemy targets beyond the range of M4 Carbines and M16 Rifles.
• 
  U.S. Army Cpl. Michael Tacker, from Tonasket, Wash., an infantryman assigned to the Kapisa-Parwan Provincial Reconstruction Team, leans against the guard rails of a bridge while providing security in Mahmood Rahqi, Afghanistan, Sept. 9. 2009.
• 
  The Mk 14 Mod 0 displayed.

•  Australia: Used by the Special Air Service Regiment in anti-Taliban operations.[20][21]
•  Iraq: Iraqi Special Operations Forces[22]
•  United States[23]
•  Philippines: FERFRANS variant used by the Philippine National Police Special Action Force
•  Taiwan

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