Textron Systems has been developing the Lightweight Small Arms Technology Demonstrator for many years. Initially, it was chambered in 5.56 mm and 7.62mm and later ported over to 6.5mm. In light of the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle PON, they created a 6.8mm variant which was used to inform the requirement and prove out the caliber choice.
A belt fed weapon, based on the same technology you see here, is one of six currently being evaluated by the Army under NGSAR.
What sets LSAT apart from all other weapons in the NGSAR PON, is that it uses a unique ammunition type called Case Telescoped which more resembles a shotgun shell than a traditional shoulder case ammo design. It’s very interesting to see how this technology works.
This short video is of a government test fire of a single magazine through a carbine. It was recorded while the video played during a session at this year’s NDIA Annual Armaments Meeting.
A video of a video, just like on liveleak.
Do you have the original? If not, well, you know the rest of it.
Awesome. That actually looked much smoother / more controllable then I would have expected for such a powerful cartridge.
I was very skeptical of the NGSW program, but it actually looks like some innovative and workable weapons are coming out of it.
Given the straightwall cartridge design, it should be much easier to produce a quad stack magazine then with a conventional taper case. I believe one of the army ‘future soldier’ presentations featured a quad stack mag in the demo.
To that end, they may want to consider shortening the mag well to end right below the magazine release. This would create a shorter ‘feed tower’ and allow an overall higher capacity quad stack relative to overall length.
Reduced feed tower length would also make for more compact and easy to carry drum mags; on of the reasons AR drums are so bulky to carry is the long feed tower, caused by the long magwell of the AR.
Well let’s hope this goes better than the HK G11 program…
In the US Army context you mean the ACR program, i guess.
Are we really looking to dump this plastic bulletin stuff by the metric tonne around the globe?
All to save a statistically meaningless 30% on CASE weight alone
It’s actually a 35% Cartridge weight savings, 38% overall savings when using the polymer plastic MG links.
It’s a huge savings; A 6.5 LSAT Cartridge weighs 237 grains/ 15.35 grams. Thats barely heavier then the projectile alone in a .45 ACP. Its a full 2g lighter then the much less powerful 6.5 Grendel in a brass case.
Polymer has revolutionized firearms and firearms accessories (to say nothing of the whole rest of the worlds manufactured goods.) Its only logical that this would work its way into polymer ammunition.
spoken like a true pogue.
Why not use the 300AAC same mag same bolt same ballistics as the 7.62×39 only change is barrel size to 30. Cal. The 120 grain is same as AK the 220 grain perfect for suppressor as it doesn’t break the sound barrier.
Because people need killing farther than 150m away. I can’t even tell if this is real or a troll post.