The US Army has selected Sig Sauer as the preferred contractor for its Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) program.
According to an announcement from April 19, the company received a 10-year firm-fixed-price follow-on production contract for the manufacture and delivery of two NGSW variations (the XM5 rifle and the XM250 automatic rifle) and the 6.8 common cartridge family of ammunition.
The army revealed the winner after 27 months of prototyping and evaluation that included numerous technical tests and soldier touch points of three competing prototype systems.
It is worth noting that the army chose the Vortex optics for the rifles before it even knew which rifle it would buy. In addition to SIG Sauer, General Dynamics and AAI Textron were competing for the contract to build next-generation rifles for the army.
The value of the initial delivery order on the contract is $20.4 million for weapons and ammunition that will undergo testing. The contract includes accessories, spares and contractor support. It also provides the other Department of Defense services and, potentially, Foreign Military Sales countries the opportunity to purchase the NGSW weapons.
The XM5 rifle will replace the M4/M4A1 carbine within the close combat force, and the XM250 automatic rifle is the planned replacement for the M249 squad automatic weapon.
“Both weapons provide significant capability improvements in accuracy, range and overall lethality. They are lightweight, fire more lethal ammunition, mitigate recoil, provide improved barrel performance, and include integrated muzzle sound and flash reduction,” the army said.
Both weapons fire common 6.8 millimeter ammunition, which includes multiple types of tactical and training rounds that increase accuracy and are more lethal against emerging threats than both the 5.56mm and 7.62mm ammunition.
The XM157 fire control that will be delivered by Vortex integrates a number of advanced technologies, including a variable magnification optic (1X8), backup etched reticle, laser rangefinder, ballistic calculator, atmospheric sensor suite, compass, intra-soldier wireless, visible and infrared aiming lasers, and a digital display overlay.
