Posted on 04/22/2022 8:38:50 PM PDT by FarCenter
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army announced the award of a 10-year firm-fixed-price follow-on production contract to Sig Sauer, Inc for the manufacture and delivery of two Next Generation Squad Weapon variations (the XM5 Rifle and the XM250 Automatic Rifle) and the 6.8 Common Cartridge Family of Ammunition.
This award was made following a rigorous 27-month prototyping and evaluation effort that included numerous technical tests and Soldier touch points of three competing prototype systems.
The value of the initial delivery order on the contract is $20.4 million for weapons and ammunition that will undergo testing. The contract includes accessories, spares and contractor support. It also provides the other Department of Defense services and, potentially, Foreign Military Sales countries the opportunity to purchase the NGSW weapons.
The XM5 Rifle will replace the M4/M4A1 carbine within the close combat force, and the XM250 Automatic Rifle is the planned replacement for the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon
Both weapons provide significant capability improvements in accuracy, range and overall lethality. They are lightweight, fire more lethal ammunition, mitigate recoil, provide improved barrel performance, and include integrated muzzle sound and flash reduction.
Both weapons fire common 6.8 millimeter ammunition utilizing government provided projectiles and vendor-designed cartridges. The new ammunition includes multiple types of tactical and training rounds that increase accuracy and are more lethal against emerging threats than both the 5.56mm and 7.62mm ammunition.
The XM5 and XM250 will be paired with the XM157 Fire Control, a ruggedized advanced fire control system that increases accuracy and lethality for the close combat force. The XM157 integrates a number of advanced technologies, including a variable magnification optic (1X8), backup etched reticle, laser rangefinder, ballistic calculator, atmospheric sensor suite, compass, Intra-Soldier Wireless, visible and infrared aiming lasers, and a digital display overlay. It is produced by Sheltered Wings Inc. d/b/a Vortex Optics, Barneveld, Wisconsin.
Everything but the kitchen sink.
I haven’t been paying much attention to cartridge development the last year or so, so when I read this article, I was trying to figure out what the heck the “6.8 Common Cartridge” was.
Apparently it is the military version of the .277 Fury, which was basically a ‘wildcat’ cartridge when I first heard about it.
With all the other crap that is accompanying the rifles, I can see this easily being a $20,000 EACH rifle system. Now, I always thought that 6.5 or 6.8 X (xx) would be a good idea for a combat weapon, but I got a feeling this will be a typical Austin / Milley debacle.
A ‘smart’ guy might wonder what a government will do next.
Like phase out 5.56 ammo altogether at some point in the very near future.
“And then?”
/s
The weapon itself seems fine. It’s controls seem identical to the current M-4 and it’s piston rather than DI. The optic? Now if there’s going to be a point of failure that’s it. That thing promises to do everything but make coffee in the morning.
CC
I have to bemoan the fact that no American arms company was competitive in this. Corporate decay, I suppose. I saw this happening to the American machine tool industry during my tenure with a first tier supplier to the Big 3 automakers. The German M/T builders were streets ahead of the domestic companies’ engineering. The Americans thought they could get by, by trading on the old-boy network, but eventually that strategy fails miserably in a free market economy.
Made in the USA: SIG Sauer’s American Dream
Made in America
The company doesn’t just produce firearms here in the States. It also designs and produces everything from ammo to optics.
Tom Taylor, SIG Sauer’s chief marketing officer and executive vice president of commercial sales, succinctly summed this up: “SIG Sauer is an American company, and our firearms are 100 percent manufactured in the USA. Beyond that, and an even lesser known fact, is that SIG Sauer ammunition is made in Arkansas, while SIG Electro-Optics are made in Oregon.”
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/blog/made-in-the-usa-sig-sauers-american-dream/
Nothing like money out the butt to retrofit your entire armory while natio s unfriendly with us rattle on with the AK47 and variants.
DOD, Department of Duhhhs
Vortex optics are made right here.
Will the M4 no longer be a “Weapon of War”?
And then Joe will get me one?
Can’t wait to see the M4’s and M240’s for sale at the CMP, along with cases of surplus 5.56! /s
What an idiotic move to now use 6.5. Another oddball round. Sig Sauer. spit.
Or even 6.8. Wonder who got paid off on this “extensive testing” bull shizit!
“Vortex optics are made right here.”
Vortex has teams in China, the Philippines, Japan, and the United States.
What does the WOKE Army really want ? LOL
6.8mm ammunition. How is that compatible with any other US or NATO weapon?
5.56 wasn’t compatible with anything either when the M16 was adopted. Which was funny, because we convinced NATO to adopt 7.62x51 as standard only a few years earlier.
The reason they're going back to a .280 now is Big Army felt a new cartridge was essential because they anticipate that individual body armor will be standard equipment for our enemies in future conflicts, so the infantry needs a rifle round that can defeat any IBA.
The 5.56 NATO round has too little case capacity and fires too light a bullet to create the sort of energy numbers shown to be effective against IBA. The .277 Fury has roughly twice the case capacity, fires a (heaviest) bullet roughly 60% heavier and generates about twice the muzzle energy of the 5.56. Its muzzle energy numbers firing a 135-gr bullet from a 16" barrel are almost identical to a 7.62x51 NATO round fired from a 24" barrel, which they claim is sufficient to defeat all current IBA as well as any that's in development.
Eventually they'll be looking to field and infantry rifle cartridge with similar armor-defeating capabilities but this squad weapon is a toe in the water. This is not unlike the strategy used by some countries when the M-16 was first introduced, having the common infantryman carry a 5.56 but also having one heavy weapons man per squad carrying a 7.62.
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