SCAR Drama continues?

Well, maybe not. It seems you can find anything on the interwebs, including FN's Marketing Director stating SOCOM will not be purchasing the Mk16/SCAR-L.

You are correct and I am not hiding any facts. And, as the main customer has stated, they do not plan to buy the MK 16...in my humble opinion, this has nothing to do with performance but rather smartly-weighed budget decisions.

This correspond with what USSOCOM Maj. Wes Ticer told Kit-Up back in June.

After completing testing, US Special Operations Command decided to procure the 7.62 mm Mk 17 rifle, the 40mm Mk 13 grenade launcher and the Mk 20 Sniper Support rifle variants of the Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR) manufactured by FN Herstal. The command will not purchase the 5.56 mm Mk 16.

The Mk 17 will fill an existing capability gap for a 7.62 mm rifle.  The Mk 16 does not provide enough of a performance advantage over the M4 to justify spending limited USSOCOM funds when competing priorities are taken into consideration.

 Is this the end of rumors and name-calling? Doubtful.  I'm sure there's still plenty of fanboys that are all sorts of butt-hurt over the decision, but I'm going to stick to my original call that the Mk16 simply does not show enough of a performance-to-price difference compared to the M16 family.