Tactical Tailor

US Army Releases Photos of Latest Next Generation Squad Weapons and Fire Control Prototypes

PEO Soldier’s Program Manager Next Generation Squad Weapons has released photos of the latest versions of the three candidate systems for Rifle and Automatic Rifle as well as the two proposed Fire Control Systems.

NGSW

Three industry teams were selected to provide Next Generation Rifle and Automatic Rifle systems to the US Army which will eventually replace the M4 Carbine and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon in the Army’s and potentially other the services’ close combat forces.

These new weapons fire a 6.8mm cartridge unlike anything else in our or other nations’ inventories. It performs in a similar fashion to the commercial 270 Win Short Mag round and will provide our troops with overmatch of threat small arms.

The teams include Textron System, General Dynamics-OTS and SIG SAUER. Each vendor brings a unique perspective to satisfying the Army’s requirement which includes not only weapons but also ammunition which weigh-in at 20% lower than current ammo.

For instance, Textron proposes a Case, Telescoped ammunition and weapons with an entirely new operation system to accommodate their cartridge design. Meanwhile, GD proposes a polymer cased ammo and bullpup weapons. SIG seems to take the low risk approach with weapons most Soldiers will be able to pick up and put right into operation along with a hybrid cased ammo which combines steel and brass in the cartridge case to lighten the load.

NGSW-FC

Designed specifically to pair with NSGW’s novel caliber, the two Fire Control System prototypes are provided by Vortex and L3 teamed with Leupold.

Specifically, NGSW-FC is intended to increase the Soldier’s ability to rapidly engage man sized targets out to 600m or greater while maintaining the ability to conduct Close Quarters Battle. This objective is achieved by leveraging technologies to calculate and display a disturbed reticle to the User.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the program office continues to forge ahead on this priority effort with ongoing technical testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground and Soldier Touch Points at Fort Drum, through the end of August. The Army hopes to make a source selection decision by FY 2022.

21 Responses to “US Army Releases Photos of Latest Next Generation Squad Weapons and Fire Control Prototypes”

  1. Hubb says:

    I will be waiting impatiently for the civilian versions of these guns & optics.

    • Joglee says:

      Lol will never happen unless Sig is the winner. Neither Textron nor GD will ever put any of their weapons on the civilian market.

      • Wilson says:

        Maybe for GD, since Beretta will be the ones manufacturing it

        • DangerMouse says:

          I think it’s possible for all three. HK is the small arms partner for the third one.

          Of course, we suck and HK hates us, but that’s besides the point.

          Beretta and Sig are perfectly OK with making profit off of civilians. And I’m ok with that.

    • TCBA_Joe says:

      SIG is the only way you’ll ever have a chance to own one.

      • John says:

        Well, SIG is all-in with their 6.8 round, the .277 Fury. The Sig Cross rifle is already chambered for it, expect gas guns from them and others since the round is going to be SAAMI spec’d.

  2. Alex says:

    This looking to be a 14+ lb gun… I see we are back in the “overbuilt” phase of equipment strategy. Are the soldiers gonna get matching deltoid protectors?

    • Yawnz says:

      Which are you referring to? There’s six pictured.

    • Scott says:

      The SIG NGSW-AR is advertised as weighing 14-15 pounds. Their rifle is an upscaled MCX in their .277 cartridge, so probably a little bit heavier than the MCX.

  3. Rob says:

    The newest version of the Textron actually looks much more svelte then the bloated thing they had before.

  4. Matt says:

    Please let us have the Sig ?

  5. Kris says:

    any one else notice all the options seem to be suppresed?

  6. TheFull9 says:

    What are we say?

    Sig – Cheapest and closest to the M16/M4?
    GD – Bullpup and weird looking suppressor, might not look great to the generals calling the shots?
    Textron – Least proven technology, perhaps greatest potential gains?

    I put question marks because there’s loads I don’t know, making no claims to be even remotely expert on this topic. I’ve been following this process closely and read every SSD post related to it and just wish there was more info in the public domain overall personally, though I get why there isn’t. HK has the Textron at their booth at shot deep behind glass and the guy I spoke to didn’t know anything. Sig had their stuff on display but there isn’t so much mystery there. Missed the GD at the beretta booth sadly, had no idea it was there.

  7. Iggy says:

    Bullpup gun….id love to see the presentation explaining away the issues with that.

    • GSC says:

      Most likely a result of the ammo velocity requirement… SIG runs their ammo at nearly 80k psi and GD uses a bullpup for the longer barrel.

  8. Raul says:

    Is it just me or does the GD offering look like it was inspired by Black Aces Tactical?

  9. Strike-Hold says:

    The real question is whether any of these will actually ever get adopted and issued. We’ve been down this road before – and it always ends with the Army not changing caliber.

    Given how much work has gone into improving the 5.56mm round, plus the adoption (at least partially) of the 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 ARC, and .338 Magnum rounds, how many more different types of ammunition does the Army want to have in its supply chain?

  10. Matthew Arenson says:

    Well they seem to have push selection back a year to 2022