FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Screaming Eagle Division Soldiers here just completed training and testing the Army’s 6.8mm family of Next Generation Squad Weapon-Rifle (NGSW-R), NGSW-Automatic Rifle (AR) and the NGSW-Fire Control (FC) systems.
Troops of Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and members of 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, undertook New Equipment Training on the NGSW.
“The New Equipment Training gave the Soldiers a good base before coming out and using the NGSWs,” said Infantryman Sgt. Jack Scott, a team leader in Alpha Company.
Their training covered the similarities and differences between the new weapons and the legacy 5.56mm M4A1 Carbine and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon systems, focusing on enhanced lethality.
“We did a lot of training with both static and maneuver ranges, so the product of Soldier you get now, during the live fire, is high quality due to all of that training,” added Scott.
Once complete with new equipment training, Soldiers tested the NGSW in a Limited User Test, or LUT, in a crawl-walk-run method to ensure all operational data is collected on the weapon, as well as user integration with the new equipment.
Alpha Company and 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment initially conducted static qualification and variable distance ranges with legacy weapon systems and NGSW, to compare performance of both and give Soldiers repetitions and familiarity with the NGSW.
Alpha Company 1st Sgt. Justin Babb appreciated the benefits of participating in an operational test and the opportunity for his junior Soldier’s feedback to contribute and impact Army modernization.
“The candid feedback that the Soldiers and NCOs provided during focus groups and surveys will provide the Army with perspective from the lowest level of user that will actually use the system,” said Babb.
Major differences between the legacy M4, M249 systems and the NGSWs were immediately noticeable by the Soldiers.
Spec. Maximiliano Arguindegui, an automatic rifleman with 1/75th Ranger Regiment, said, “Overall, I feel faster with the M249, but I prefer the NGSW-AR because it makes me more lethal.”
Scott added, “Stopping power with the 6.8 round is a big improvement compared to the M4 and M249 and having the ability to use with or without the suppressor is a huge feature for the support by fire element.”
Leaders of Alpha Company also said participating in a test with the Operational Test Command enabled them to get after their internal readiness.
Alpha Company Commander, Capt. Jordan Mares, said, “Being a part of the NGSW test absolutely supported our company readiness. The LUT gave us opportunities to hone our craft, practice lessons learned with feedback from subject-matter experts, and the ability to conduct a lot of repetitions to practice small unit tactics.”
Staff Sgt. Ivan Alvarez, a Squad Leader with Alpha Company, was initially skeptical of the NGSW.
“When we first started the LUT, I was very against the NGSW-R,” he said. “I’m used to the M4 — it’s lighter — I’m used to the recoil, the engagements, everything the M4 has to offer. But, as we went through the LUT with the NGSW-R, I can see the capabilities that it brings to an infantryman, especially at a longer distance.”
Alvarez also said testing the new weapons gave his squad added training opportunities.
“We got after a lot of training that we would normally have to wait months to set up and accomplish,” he said. “We were able to get more marksmanship time, more range time, and were able to train under various environmental conditions.”
Another squad leader with the Rangers provided his observations on the training benefit while participating in an operational test.
“We were able to get reps in on a new weapon system as well as our legacy equipment,” said Sgt. Joseph Martin. “We were able to train on many basic things that we want to train on every year, but condensed to get more repetitions, as well as live fire iterations for our younger, inexperienced Soldiers.”
Story by Maj. Rodrick A. Polk, test officer, Maneuver Test Directorate, U.S. Army Operational Test Command
Photos by Mr. Mark Scovell, Visual Information Specialist, U.S. Army Operational Test Command
I can’t help but notice that the majority of comments in the article are oriented towards Soldiers being appreciative of an opportunity to conduct an uninterrupted training cycle vs actual comments on the weapon system. That should tell people plenty about both the weapons themselves and the quality of training within their command.
One quoted soldier even referred to “stopping power” which speaks to the depth of the education they are getting. Would have liked to see a deeper acknowledgment of new capabilities rather than citing a make believe metric like “stopping power”.
Stopping power is real. It’s just a colloquial way of saying delivered energy on target. The more energy I dump into your meat bag the better the chance it’s going to stop working.
Unfortunately, as long as the Army continues to treat the ballistic aspects of this capability classified, you’re going to continue to get a generic reference to what it does.
The ballistic aspects of this weapon are not “classified” and the army is not treating them that way.
Okay, then share them with us.
>Makes comments about supposed poor education of soldiers
>Inadvertently shows his own lack of education
It’s a simple combination of mass and velocity. Something faster and larger will deliver more energy into the target, ergo it will have more “stopping power”.
What more “education” do bullet sponges need?
1. This is your new weapon
2. This is how it works.
3. This is what it can do to a target.
4. Don’t pawn off the expensive addons for your 25% APR Mustang/Charger/rice burner.
I’m seeing a fair amount of muzzle flash and smoke in these photos. That would seem to be less that optimal.
Matt
I noticed that as well. Looks like a muzzle loader competition.
Noticed the huge muzzle flashes too. Those images are with the suppressor. Not optimal at all. Were they training with the new ammo?
No, that’s the blank firing adapter.
Got it! Thanks for clearing that up.
Heavy flash appears to be from blanks, you can see muzzle devices through flash on the higher resolution photos.
Ammo wise of course everyone is training with the reduced velocity reduced “hazard” rounds because the SDZ at most ranges cant accommodate the magic high velocity 6.8 rounds. So essentially its a 7.62×51 level of performance.
The smoke in front of the muzzle is good, it means it isn’t going in your face. The flash you are seeing in this pictures is from the blank firing adapter and not the suppressor. Unfortunately, the army did a poor job of selling their capability in this media release.
Appreciate the clarification SSD! I’m happy to see the troops getting hands on time and look forward to seeing more. Thanks man!
Going backward in magazine capacity and individual riflemen ammo load-out to fight the fantasy fight of long range marksmanship on an open battlefield. This is not the rifle to outfit an army to take a with an embedded enemy in, CQB to 200m max range with most if it being building to building complex ambushes and high volume of fire, and the Army is back pushing the battle rifle for the whole platoon BS.
* to take a city with an embedded enemy in….
I watched an XM250 blow through a concrete block wall at 200m. 5.56 won’t do that.
“thanks for the training.. now can I go back to using lighter more ergonomic weapons with double the basic load?”
Anymore comments from the 1/75th Folks? The comments were mostly 101st folks.
Not that it really matters since, I’ll never have a chance to finger fuck the NSGW, but I still have muscle memory from lugging the M249.
I know the chances of this are slim-to-none….but…..I am crossing my fingers the Army uses “commonality” or whatever silly excuse to back door the replacement of all M4A1s currently in service with all the support troops with the SIG SPEAR-LT in 5.56 in 11.5in.
I know it is a fever dream, but it would be BA is all I am saying.
That rifle is going nowhere. A colossal waste of time and money.
Have you touched it, let alone fired it? Do you know what it does? Did you ever pine for a M14 because the Muj had overmatch?
The Muj had overmatch? Only in resolve to win that war that was a lost cause before it began. You don’t win a fight against a PKM or the 3-7 rounds fired from a .303 Lee Enfield with M4’s and M16’s. And even if we’d had this, or any other whizz bang Wundervappen we’d still have lost in Afghanistan.
I realize it was 20 years ago, but we busted M14s out and issued them because of overmatch.
We “lost” Afghanistan because we refuse to commit to total war, just like every other conflict since World War Two.
Not to be nit picky but getting fired upon from an elevated position by an AK, PKM, or worse yet a DShK will always out range what a typical US squad is equipped with.
The M14 was a good immediate low cost solution. Then those were replaced by the M110. For those really long range stuff the M107 was the only real go to until the M2010 really started to makes it way into the force.
That was the point of NGSW.
Yes, I know…
The point that I was making is that there are weapon systems in the inventory that addresses the “overmatch problem”.
But not Squad weapons.
Hey SSD, the guys who did the testing are under NDAs so they cannot share their actual feedback without consequences. If you have any investigative journalism ability, ask PEO for the actual feedback they gave on the weapons other than “we liked doing training.”
Please note, PEO Soldier didn’t publish this piece. It came from the testing side of things. At some point, they’ll put something out, after they’ve briefed the Army leadership and decisions have been made. Next up is Arctic testing in Alaska followed by jungle testing in Panama.
The youtube channel Modern Tactical Shooting did a good opinion piece on the NGSW. I agree with his assessment at the end that this system would be better off replacing the SAW and 240 instead of the M4A1.
https://youtu.be/YdAYSEm5zJA?si=Um0h09E-OYQ5SvY6