Vehicle manufacturers designed new tanks with bigger engines to accommodate the added weight of the thicker armour and so the task for the weapon manufacturers became far more challenging. The higher projectile velocities required for additional armour penetration came at the expense of larger, heavier, more complex weapons, some even requiring wheeled carriages for transportation. With larger and faster projectiles came innovations to tame higher recoil loads such as recoil pads, muzzle brakes and even tapered rifle bores.

At the end of World War II the size, weight and recoil of the anti-tank rifle needed to defeat the latest armour became more than an infantryman could shoot or carry. And almost no use was made of large-calibre shoulder-fired weapons until recent times. In 1981 a 26-year old American entrepreneur named Ronnie Barrett designed a semi-automatic .50 calibre rifle, when the only thing available was a machine gun that was too complex to own and too costly to shoot. Working in his garage, he built a rifle based on the recoiling-barrel Browning short recoil cycle. With his first prototype Barrett was pleasantly surprised at the mild recoil loads.

Barrett's design caught the attention of the US military who were looking for a weapon to penetrate thin-skinned vehicles following terrorist attacks in Beirut, Lebanon. Some NATO armies also showed interest and the Barrett M82A1 went into production as a military weapon. During Desert Storm the Barrett M82A1 won wide acclaim when US ground troops used it effectively against armoured personnel carriers, high-value targets, and personnel.

Guns and ammunition
The US Marine Corps has become one of the strongest advocates of the M82A1 rifle and has worked hand in hand with Barrett on product improvements. The latest refinements include a removable carrying handle, improved bipod, lightened components and provision for new day and night optics that the marines will be fielding soon.

Now that an accurate weapon is available to fire it, improvements have been made to .50- calibre NATO ammunition that greatly increase its accuracy, penetration capability, and lethality. Along with the armour-piercing incendiary ammunition is the new Mk211 Raufoss round that uses a zirconium penetrator to ignite flammable material after impact and explosion at the target.

Counter-sniping
Peacekeeping missions in troubled areas such as Somalia and Bosnia have resulted in another role for the M82A1: counter-sniping. Peacekeepers who are fired on by snipers located in buildings or other populated areas have had few options when attempting to return effective fire. Conventional small arms usually do not penetrate a sniper's fortifications, while the collateral damage caused by large-calibre systems poses a threat to non-hostile civilians who could be occupying the same premises. The allies' weapon of choice for the counter-sniping role has now become the Barrett M82A1, whose pinpoint accuracy and penetrating ammunition effectively deal with this threat while minimising the risk to non-combatants.

Explosive ordnance disposal
During or after any engagement, disposal of unexploded ordnance represents a problem common to every battlefield. Despite differences in design and construction, most unexploded ordnance will not explode when penetrated by a projectile from a small arm. The few that do cause little or no damage to surroundings. As a result of their long-range penetration capability, Barrett .50-calibre rifles are used extensively as an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) tool.

The future of the special-application rifle
The wide range of applications and the reliability, durability and light weight of the .50-calibre family of Barrett rifle weapons has resulted in more than 30 countries adopting either the semi-automatic M82A1 or the bolt-action Model 95. The Barrett M82A1 is finding increasing acceptance as a vehicle-mounted weapon, especially air-transportable vehicles where weight is important. Compared to the 39kg .50-calibre M2 machine gun, the M82A1 at 13.6kg (30Ib) is available at less than half the weight. In keeping with the large-calibre tradition already established at Barrett, the latest weapon to be introduced is the semi-automatic Model 98A rifle chambered for the widely acclaimed and highly accurate .338 Lapua Magnum cartridge. This calibre offers improvements over the 7.62mm NATO round for anti-personnel sniping and can be used in an anti-material role also.

Intermediate in size between .50 calibre and 7.62mm NATO, the .338 Lapua Magnum extends the current 7.62mm 850m maximum sniping range to beyond 1,400m. In other comparisons with the 7.62mm NATO, the .338 Lapua Magnum doubles the armour penetration and exhibits 40 per cent less effect from crosswind.

The Model 98A is the first rifle in .338 Lapua Magnum to be offered by Barrett, and a companion bolt-action rifle, the Model 9811, will be available later in the year. These two rifles will then represent a complete system for the two-man sniper team.

The Model 98B as the primary sniper rifle will provide precision accuracy for the sniper mission while the M98A becomes what is known as the designated marksman rifle (DMR). The DMR is the support rifle capable of delivering a high volume of accurate firepower to further disrupt the enemy, or to provide firepower during egress from an area.