The Warzone By Joseph Trevithick 7/19/2018
As the service begins evaluating five different prototype designs, it says that secondary units will continue using existing guns for years to come.The U.S. Army says, at least at present, it is only considering doling out new squad automatic weapons to front-line or “close-combat†units, while rear echelon elements would continue to use their existing M249 Squad Automatic Weapons for the foreseeable future. This comes soon after the service announced it had picked five companies to supply prototype designs, one of which could begin entering service as early as 2022.
Military.com was first to report the new details about which soldiers might get the guns after an interview with U.S. Army Lieutenant General Paul Ostrowski, the Principal Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, earlier in July 2018. The service announced it had awarded developmental contracts to Textron System’s AAI Corporation division, FN America, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, PCP Tactical, and Sig Sauer as part of what it officially calls the Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle (NGSAR) program on June 25, 2017. This notice on FedBizOpps, the U.S. government's main contracting website, did not say what weapons each of these firms would submit.
“This is not for every soldier,†Ostrowski told Military.com. “We are looking at it for 100,000 close-combat soldiers.â€
The Army started the NGSAR effort, which is ostensibly aimed at replacing the M249, in May 2017 and it has become a major priority for the Army’s Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team, or CFT. This organization is part of the service’s new Futures Command, which has the main objective of connecting service members, subject matter experts, and industry representatives to explore and develop new systems and technologies across a number of different functional areas.
As such, the Army has given relatively basic requirements to the five competitors. “We have given them our priorities and said 'innovate,' and these companies are doing it,†Ostrowski said.
The empty weapon, consisting of the gun itself, a sling, a bipod, and a sound suppressor – an increasingly default accessory across the U.S. military – should weigh 12 pounds or less. The Army says that appropriate optical sights, aiming lights and lasers, and other "fire control" systems, which have to be suitable for use during the day or at night, shouldn’t add more than three more pounds to the system.
For comparison, a standard M249 with a full-size 20-inch barrel and fixed, polymer buttstock is approximately 17 pounds. The new weapon, with the suppressor attached and any folding or collapsible buttstock extended, also has to be 35 inches at most, which is more than five inches shorter than the SAW.
The suppressed weapon has to have a muzzle flash 80 percent less bright than the existing M249 and be no more than 140 decibels loud to the shooter. The latter requirement is a very modest goal, comparable to the sound of a jet engine at takeoff.
---The ammunition the guns use is one of, if not the most significant requirement and the one that the Army has been the most tight-lipped about. The stated requirements simply say that it has to weight 20 percent less than an equivalent brass-cased cartridge in the same caliber.---
More:
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/22281/army-to-replace-m249-saws-with-new-squad-automatic-rifles-only-in-close-combat-units
