private industry firearms founded 1982 ; 34 years ago 1982 1 founder ronnie g. barrett headquarters christiana tennessee 2 united states key people ronnie g. barrett ceo products firearms website www.barrett.net barrett firearms manufacturing is an american manufacturer of firearms and ammunition located in the unincorporated town of christiana tennessee . it was founded in 1982 by ronnie g. barrett for the single purpose of building semi automatic rifles chambered for the powerful .50 bmg 12.7 99mm nato ammunition originally developed for and used in m2 browning machine guns . barrett began his work in the early 1980s and the first working rifles were available in 1982 hence the designation m82 . barrett designed every single part of the weapon personally and then went on to market the weapon and mass produce it out of his own pocket . he continued to develop his rifle through the 1980s and developed the improved m82a1 rifle by 1986 . contents 1 history 2 products 2.1 sniper rifles 2.2 semi auto rifles 2.3 machine guns 2.4 optics 2.5 ammunition 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit barrett introduced the m82 in 1982 but did not make any significant sales until 1989 . these first large sales were to sweden . soon afterward the m82 was purchased by the united states armed forces and it was deployed in the gulf war . today the company has contracts with dozens of countries to supply sniper rifles . the success of the m82a1 has led the company to develop several other models of .50 bmg rifles including the m95 m99 and m99 1 . these are lighter and lower cost bolt action rifles . an early customer of the m82 or barrett light fifty was the ira which conducted a sniper campaign against the british armed forces in the north of ireland . 3 an unidentified ira volunteer quoted by author toby harnden said that what s special about the barrett is the huge kinetic energy ... the bullet can just walk through a flak jacket . south armagh was the prime place to use such weapon because of the availability of brits . they came to dread it and that was part of its effectiveness . 4 by 1997 troops were being issued with body armour containing a ceramic plate made from boron carbide which could protect the trunk from a .50 calibre round ; kevlar flak jacket had proved useless against such a bullet . but a set of boron carbide body armour not only cost 4 000 but weighed 32 lb 15 kg making it too heavy to be worn on patrol ; even soldiers at static checkpoints could only wear it for two hours at a time . 5 the morale of the troops was so low that some servicemen had to be disciplined for remaining in shelter while under orders to check vehicles . 6 a british major said that that meant that to some extent the ira had succeeded in forcing troops off the ground and it made helicopters more vulnerable so we had to guard against using them too much . 7 a u.s. army sniper with bravo company 502nd infantry regiment 101st airborne division stands ready to engage targets during a mission on the outskirts of baghdad iraq . in current us military use is the m82a3 as well as a new updated version the m107 . it is described as an anti materiel rifle . while the m107 is highly effective against soft targets and is used by explosive ordnance disposal teams with special military heiap ammunition its power is not required for anti personnel use the heavy recoil and weight are an unnecessary penalty . in january 2011 barrett announced the m107 s successor the m107a1 was available for commercial release . m107a1 enhancements include a reduction in overall weight of 4 pounds increased accuracy the ability to accept a barrett suppressor via its modified cylindrical titanium muzzle brake and additional modifications to improve overall durability and operator utility . the m82a1 has been purchased by over 40 military organizations worldwide . it became popular during the first gulf war for its use in disabling iraqi armored personnel carriers from a mile away . fighters in the bosnian army used just one .50 caliber rifle to great effect in fending off serb forces in srebrenica during the bosnian war of the early 1990s . florin krasniqi and his associates acquired dozens of the rifles in the late 90s for use in the kosovo war . more recently barrett has developed the rec7 upper receiver for the ar 15 platform chambered in 6.8 mm remington spc which was one of the weapons the army reviewed in 2008 while drafting requirements for a potential m4 carbine replacement . barrett is also developing the xm109 a variant of the m82a1 designed to fire a 25 mm munition . in response to california s ban of civilian ownership of .50 bmg rifles barrett suspended sales and service to all law enforcement agencies in california . 8 barrett has also developed the .416 barrett a rifle round based on the .50 bmg . the purpose of this round is to allow first round hits out to 2 500 meters 2 730 yd from a cold bore and is not prohibited for sale to civilians in california . in october 2008 barrett introduced the new m98b . the m98b is a bolt action rifle chambered in .338 lapua magnum . it went on sale in 2009 . 9 on february 26 2016 tennessee named the barrett m82 the official rifle of the state of tennessee . 10 products edit sniper rifles edit barrett m82 m107 barrett m90 barrett m95 barrett m98 barrett m98b barrett m99 barrett xm109 barrett xm500 barrett mrad semi auto rifles edit barrett rec7 machine guns edit barrett m240lw barrett m468 optics edit barrett optical ranging system bors ammunition edit .50 bmg m33 ball .416 barrett 6.8 spc .338 lapua magnum see also edit pauza p 50 a rifle designed as a competitor to barrett in the 1990s . references edit barrett rifles . archived from the original on 2 july 2008 . retrieved 2008 06 21 . https tnbear.tn.gov ecommerce filingdetail.aspx cn 058167132188221009207101085227080021191179228216 tennessee secretary of state business entity detail barrett firearms manufacturing inc. o brien pp. 354 355 harnden pp. 406 407 harnden page 405 . harnden page 401 harnden page 406 the gun zone rkba ronnie barrett . retrieved 2008 09 28 . 98bravo . com . archived from the original on 20 september 2008 . retrieved 2008 10 15 . van huss james micah february 26 2016 . hjr0231 pdf . tennessee general assembly . external links edit barrett firearms official website barrett firearms official store guns and character assassination there will be no more nibbling at our freedom . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title barrett firearms manufacturing & oldid 737167723 categories barrett firearms manufacturingmanufacturing companies established in 1982firearm manufacturers of the united states1982 establishments in tennessee navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to 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