First Soldiers Will Get Next-Gen Squad Weapons in 2023

SOFIC NEWS: First Troopers Will Get Subsequent-Gen Squad Weapons in 2023

Sig Sauer picture

TAMPA, Florida — For the primary time in a long time, the Military will make use of model new rifles, computerized rifles and ammunition calibers, with the primary unit receiving the next-generation squad weapons by fall of 2023, in response to the makers of the weapons.

After years of improvement and intense competitors between main gun makers, the Military introduced in April that Sig Sauer Inc. will manufacture the service’s next-generation squad weapons. The ten-year firm-fixed-price follow-on manufacturing contract is value $4.5 billion and covers the supply of two variations of the weapon — the XM5 Rifle and the XM250 Computerized Rifle — in addition to the 6.8x51mm FURY hybrid ammunition.

Sig Sauer plans to ship the primary spherical of latest weapons and ammunition to an Military unit by subsequent yr, CEO and President Ron Cohen mentioned Might 18 on the sidelines of the Particular Operation Forces Business Convention in Tampa

“Essentially, they need to begin deployment of the primary unit round spring or summer time of subsequent yr,” Cohen informed Nationwide Protection. “It will reshape all infantry warfare in a approach that hasn’t modified because the early Nineteen Sixties.”

The primary supply order is value $20.4 million and can embody 25 XM5 Rifles and 15 XM250 Computerized Rifles and ammunition that may bear testing, Col. Scott Madore, the Military’s mission supervisor for soldier lethality, informed reporters final month throughout a media occasion.

The XM5 Rifle will substitute the M4 carbine utilized by the shut fight pressure, whereas the XM250 Computerized Rifle will substitute the M249 Squad Computerized Weapon. Every weapon may also include Sig Sauer’s suppressors meant to cut back dangerous gasoline backflow, sound results and flash.

Each hearth 6.8mm ammunition, an progressive bullet that’s quicker, extra deadly and has better accuracy than what’s presently utilized by the Military, Cohen mentioned.

Steve Rose, government vice chairman at Sig Sauer, added its 6.8mm caliber ammunition is the place the important thing innovation is.

“The ammunition is the expertise. It’s the leap ahead in functionality,” he mentioned. “The weapons, though it’s nice to speak about them, they’re merely the automobile to ship the expertise and allow the ammunition to shine.”

Cohen defined that traditionally, growing the lethality and velocity of a bullet required producers to additionally improve cartridge dimension to accommodate for the elevated stress wanted to shoot. Moreover, the weapons would additionally should get larger and heavier.

Sig Sauer developed a light-weight metallic casing to pair with 6.8mm ammunition already designed and manufactured by america. This permits a cartridge to resist extra stress than standard ammunition, leading to better velocity and accuracy with out having to make the weapon bodily larger, Cohen mentioned.

The design solves lethality and vary challenges the Military has confronted whereas utilizing the M4 carbine and M249 Squad Computerized Weapon, he added.

At about two-thirds the burden of the M249 machine gun, Sig Sauer’s XM250 Computerized Rifle is far lighter than what troopers have been carrying, Cohen mentioned. Nevertheless, the corporate did should make the XM5 Rifle heavier than the M4 carbine, though Cohen ensured they did so with the least quantity of further weight potential.

One other key design aspect of the next-gen squad weapons is their similarity to what they’re changing, mentioned Jason St. John, director of presidency merchandise at SIG Sauer.

“We thought it essential to present them an [automatic rifle]-style weapon system if we may,” St. John mentioned, referring to the XM5 Rifle. “The troopers would embrace it simpler, however the Military would additionally embrace it as a result of the coaching curve to implement that weapon system is now nearly non-existent.”

St. John additionally mentioned the potential offered by the 6.8mm ammunition allowed the corporate to develop the XM250 Computerized Rifles with out having to increase the barrel past the necessities from the Military — protecting it just like belt-fed machine weapons in platoons.

In all, the contract requires a complete of 400,000 weapons and 1 billion rounds of ammunition from Sig Sauer, in response to the corporate.

That would come with 107,000 XM5 Rifles and 13,000 XM250 Computerized Rifles for the Military’s total shut fight pressure, Brig. Gen. Larry Burris, commander of the Military’s infantry faculty at Fort Benning and director for the soldier lethality cross useful workforce, mentioned final month throughout a media occasion.

Regardless of the weapons and ammunition being model new, Sig Sauer expects no manufacturing points to match the demand, Cohen mentioned. The corporate plans to develop services all through the nation and make manufacturing for the weapons and ammunition a high precedence, he added.

Competitors to supply the next-gen squad weapon started in 2017 and included a rigorous 27-month prototyping and analysis effort of checks and soldier suggestions. Though a number of firms fought for the profitable contract, it got here right down to Sig Sauer and a workforce of LoneStar Future Weapons and BerrettaUSA within the closing levels.

The weapons will probably be paired with the XM157 Hearth Management, a ruggedized superior hearth management system that will increase accuracy and lethality for the shut fight pressure, made by Vortex Optics.

It additionally integrates a variety of superior applied sciences, together with a variable magnification optic (1X8), backup etched reticle, laser rangefinder, ballistic calculator, atmospheric sensor suite, compass, Intra-Soldier Wi-fi, seen and infrared aiming lasers and a digital show overlay.

Subjects: Particular Operations