In early August we casually mentioned a new proprietary 6.8 magazine coming from Magpul for an LWRC International Six8 project. Called the Ultra Compact Individual Weapon or UCIW, we can now show you a little bit about that gun.
Currently, they have contracts for 6,000 of the new guns and LWRC’s Darren Mellors shared some background of the project on their forums, “All forgings (upper and lower) are coined. Meaning they are struck once (as all AR’s are) to make the forging, then heat treated, then coined which is to take the cold (unheated but heat treated and aged forging) and strike it again in the forging die. This costs more than twice as much to do, but it dimensionally corrects any wandering that may have occurred in heat treating, and creates such a beautiful exterior, they look like they were created by the gods. The argument for billet or forging is over. The best strength characteristics of a forging, with dimensional accuracy of a billet receiver, and beauty that surpasses either.”
Here you can see the ambi controls of the UCIW.
And the reverse of a test gun.
As we understand it, they are also working with a new cartridge in 6.8 (SPCII) manufactured by ATK. Here, you can see an early test gun and ammo boxes.
Based on this ballistics demonstration, looks like this new cartridge and carbine combo is going to do quite well. 0.5 inch AR 550 Brinell Armor plate. Shot an 8.5″ 6.8mm UCIW and SSA Armor Piercing ammunition at 100m. Full penetration.
And finally, here is that Magpul magazine we alluded to. As you can see it incorporates much of the M3 technology we discussed.
Notice that we’ve mentioned that this magazine is proprietary to LWRCI. The reason is that the magwell for this Six8 lower is a little different than a standard 5.56 lower. They aren’t ready to release these new dimensions to industry just yet.
Unfortunately, it looks like you won’t be able to just go out and purchase a new upper and slap it on your existing gun. Not only is the lower dimensionally different in a couple of ways but the upper and lower interface differently than standard ARs.
According to LWRCI’s Jesse Gomez some standard AR parts will fit the UCIW.
Parts which will interchange between the AR15/M4 platform and the Six8 architecture:
Upper:
Barrel Extensions and barrel assemblies, Barrel Nut, Forward Assist, E-Port Door Assembly, Charging Handle, Cam Pin, Firing Pin and the Bore C.L. to Gas-Tube/Op Rod C.L. dimension remain unmodified. Most free float hand-guards can be used with no mods.
Please note: A standard Bolt and Carrier will work without modification, but due to tolerances and tolerance stacking rubbing between the outside of the mag feed lips and carrier may occur. Hand cycling of the weapon a few times with the mag insert will easily correct this. We opted to enhance our carrier for additional clearance of the feed lips. In regards to the bolt we included the very same up-grades we developed for the M4 Product Improvement Program (PIP) into our 6.8 ACB (Now the Mk II ACB) for greater extractor to shell interaction for increased performance. Imagine an AK74 extractor in an AR. All other features of the ACB carry over.
Lower:
All lower parts interchange with the exception of the magazine catch assembly and the bolt catch. A standard both catch will work but you will need to remove the ambi bolt catch components. Everything else is a direct drop-in.
For the class III folks, the Six8 lowers are milled to low shelf configuration.
For those of you who are interested, we understand that this new gun will be available late this year, in all barrel lengths, and hopefully in an IC configuration. All photos originated in the forums section of .www.lwrci.com
