The American military's newest weapons system, the Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW), will be delivered to US special operations ground forces, such as the Green Berets or Army Rangers, once its development is complete, Joel Babbitt, a representative from the Programme Executive Officer Special Operations Forces Warrior shared in an interview with the website Military.com.
"We are an enthusiastic supporter of the Army's 6.8mm Next Generation Squad Weapons. We expect there will be Next Generation Squad Weapons in our formations as soon as we can receive them via fielding", he said.
NGSW prototypes have already been developed by four different contractors and are currently being evaluated by the military, who will pick one manufacturer for the entire weapons system. The latter will include an NGSW-based rifle, which will replace the Army's M4A1 carbine, and an NGSW-based automatic rifle to replace the M249 light machine gun. It's unclear if a separate NGSW-based LMG will be developed as currently, the Army is content with the automatic rifle's performance, Babbitt noted.
The RM277 - General Dynamics' new bullpup offering for US Army's NGSW program. GD in collaboration with True Velocity is also offering 6.8mm polymer-cased ammo for 30-40% weight reduction for the ammo. Other companies competing in NGSW are SIG Sauer and Textron Systems. pic.twitter.com/J9Gx9DS8EF
— Parthu Potluri (@Parthu_Potluri) October 18, 2019
Unlike another addition to the military's arsenal, the XM25 air-burst system, NGSW have been developed in concert with representatives of the armed forces. The XM25 was received coldly by special forces due to it being too heavy to carry and was eventually discarded for being unreliable.
High-Tech Weapons System
NGSW items, which are expected to hit the Army shelves around 2023, will feature a long list of improvements, compared to existing weapons systems. It will be based on a unified lightweight 6.8 mm ammunition, which is expected to outperform the 5.56 mm ammo in terms of range and lethality.
The weapons themselves will also be lightweight, allowing soldiers to carry more ammo and supplies on missions, while featuring higher precision and better ergonomics than their predecessors. In addition, the NGSW guns will have a reduced acoustic and flash signature thus making soldiers using them less detectable to enemies.
The new weapons system will also have capabilities for further modernisations, such as installing gadgets to calculate bullet ballistics, intelligent targeting, and even tracking enemies on the battlefield.
