NEWINGTON, N.H., (February 2, 2021) – SIG SAUER, Inc. is proud to announce the final delivery of the Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) systems to the U.S. Army, consisting of the revolutionary 6.8×51 hybrid ammunition, the NGSW-AR lightweight belt-fed machine gun, the NGSW-R rifle, and suppressors.
“This historic moment is the culmination of an incredible collaboration between the U.S. Army and SIG. We commend Army leadership for having the vision to undertake this monumental procurement process and for remaining vigilant in their mission to bring a modern, transformational weapon system to the battlefield,” began Ron Cohen, President and CEO of SIG SAUER. “Throughout the program we have been given unprecedented access to the soldiers and Marines who will ultimately field these weapons. These soldier touchpoint events have led to rapid advancements over the current weapons systems and resulted in our delivery of the most innovative Next Generation Squad Weapons system to the U.S. Army.”
Each component of the SIG SAUER NGSW system offers significant advancements in battlefield weapons performance beginning with the SIG SAUER 6.8×51 Hybrid Ammunition – a lightweight cartridge designed to handle higher pressures resulting in increased velocity and terminal performance.
The SIG SAUER Lightweight Belt-Fed Machine Gun (NGSW-AR) doubles the effective range and is 40% lighter that the current M249 while maintaining the preferred belt-fed operation, with reduced felt recoil to increased accuracy.
The SIG SAUER Rifle (NGSW-R) is built on the foundation of the battle tested MCX platform with the added firepower of the 6.8×51 round; both the NGSW-AR and NGSW-R feature familiar AR-style ambidextrous ergonomics designed for a seamless transition from the legacy weapons to the SIG NGSW system.
The final component of the system is the SIG SAUER Next Generation Suppressors for reduced sound signature.
We are immensely proud that our entire NGSW submission has been designed, engineered, and manufactured as one integrated system by one single American company at our U.S. facilities,” continued Cohen. “Each component has been exhaustively tested with the others to ensure peak operational performance and endurance for the rigors of the battlefield.”
“As a leader in the firearms manufacturing industry we understand the challenge of bringing a system like this to reality. We designed our NGSW system to be production ready and with every component coming from SIG, it presents minimal fielding risk to the U.S. Army. The form, fit, and function of the firearms is familiar to our warfighters so the transition in the training and qualification of soldiers and Marines is faster and easier, and despite its revolutionary design, hybrid ammunition can be manufactured on a widespread basis immediately. We have a proven and successful track record of delivering multi-branch, service-wide, successful weapons programs to the U.S. Army, and we stand ready,” concluded Cohen.
The revolutionary designs and engineering advancements that were made throughout the development of the SIG NGSW system have ushered the launch of multiple commercially available products in the coming months. These products include SIG FURY hybrid ammunition which uses the NGSW cartridge design for various calibers, and recently gained the regulatory Small Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute (SAAMI) approval, the MCX-SPEAR semi-automatic rifle, and the SIG Next Generation Suppressors.
Visit sigsauer.com to learn more about the U.S. Army selection and delivery of the SIG SAUER Next Squad Weapons.
It always looked like the SIG path of least resistance was going to be a safer bet for big Army, but the platform still looks like it will give some solid lethality improvements. Would be nice if they kept investigating the tech on the Textron and General Dynamics builds for future tech unlike when we gave up for quite some time after the HK G11.
And like the G11, the recoil looks be…suboptimal.
Yea did not look like an easy ride on the latest videos, but G11 wise, also what you get when trying to basically shoot 3 rounds at once.
Like them both! That side charging handle on the rifle platform reminds me of the same found on JP-07 rifles! Way to go Sig, if only I could 20 years younger and re-join/go into the Army! Hoo-Ah Rangers Lead The Way…..!
“Next on Forgotten Weapons, an innovative yet ultimately doomed effort by SIG SAUER to provide soldiers with a weapon that tried to increase lethality while keeping weight reasonably controlled. It was ultimately the Army procurement system that failed, but more on that later…”
” just like the program to replace the 30.06 cartridge with the 276 after ww1 it was decided to keep 5.56 since there was a large surplus of it after the 20 year global war on terror”
I love the fact they created the m2 Ball which was less powerful due to the ranges that existed same thing when the m855a1 came out and they had to redo all the range fans for the same thing
The lethality has nothing to do with punch, it has to do with armor penetration. Our 556 rounds can no longer defeat armor.
The Army never gets a new rifle without a new cartridge. The one exception was the M1 Garand.
The Army does seem to serious about this. Each of the contenders has merit. However the Sig offering is the most traditional.
BTW you can see the performance specs of the Sig cartridge by looking the Sig 277 Fury
the m1 was supposed to adopt the 276 cartridge but there was too much m2 ball laying around from ww1 i believe you’ll see the same thing come up with 5.56
7mm is close to the peak of the performance-carriage curve, given that one is shooting single shots at known targets. When shooting ‘suspected’ targets, that peak shifts a bit more toward 5.56mm.
I would like to see what could happen with the 5.56mm, if they used the same ammunition technology as the 6.8 SIG- 80,000 psi with steel case head and washer locked brass case body. Yowza!
That would be very interesting.