Army picks SIG to produce Next Generation Squad Weapon

[Hank6046]

That Sig's offering was selected is hardly surprising; that writing has been on the wall for some time. The real interesting bit was that a selection was made, and watching the interwebz reaction to it. I tend to expect, like others, that this will go the way of the XM8. That said, I really find the "No, mY 5.56 aR iS pErFeCt!" crowd to be amusing. There has been a push for well over a decade for a larger caliber for matters of range, "stopping power" and effectiveness against armor. That the Army picked something based on that idea shouldn't come as too much of a shock. With no hands-on experience with either the caliber or the rifle in question, I will hold judgment on whether or not it's a cool way to achieve the desired results or just another wasted program. I'm far more concerned with the chamber pressures and worn-out barrels than the weight and increased recoil.

^^^This. I'm not going to swap out all of my AR's and 5.56 ammo overnight because that's stupid, however, I look forward to seeing what the .277 can do, and the positives and negatives of the round and platforms.

Honestly, this, like everything we guys like, Trucks, Guns, Watches, Cars, etc. is the new hotness and will only aid in ARFcom and others forgetting that ultimately it's the Indian that matters and not the arrow

[AndyLate]

I’m pretty sure in 10 years all of you naysayers will be arguing over a chart listing the attributes of all the 277 chambered MCX Spear clones on the market.

Or they will have a run like the Krag and M14 and we will be discussing the replacement in 10 years.

Andy

[titsonritz]

I'll believe it when I see it.

[CRAMBONE]

Wasn’t the M855A1’s main claim to fame when it was created that it was lead free?

[CRAMBONE]

Doubled

[vicious_cb]

Or they will have a run like the Krag and M14 and we will be discussing the replacement in 10 years.

Andy

Guess there are more clueless arfcommers in this thread than I thought. I would have thought the M4C community to be a little more educated in the employment of a rifle to understand why giving everyone what is essentially a battle rifle is a bad idea.

[1168]

Wasn’t the M855A1’s main claim to fame when it was created that it was lead free?

That was one of the early pretexts. Turns out, it improved lethality. We don’t use “expanding ammo” that is contrary to Hague (which we are not signatory to, and does not apply to many of our enemies)….we use green ammo that happens to fragment more reliably while simultaneously better defeating light armor.

[AndyLate]

Guess there are more clueless arfcommers in this thread than I thought. I would have thought the M4C community to be a little more educated in the employment of a rifle to understand why giving everyone what is essentially a battle rifle is a bad idea.

The 277 calls to mind the .276 Enfield round from pre-WWI.

Andy

[Pasta123]

Well here’s a good comment on TFB. I’m not sure how to jump on that comment, so might just quote it. Will delete if this is not allowed.

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/...uer-wins-ngsw/

But, looks like it’s going nowhere.

Word is 6.8 and the Sig guns are already essentially dead in the water.

Like yeah they just got accepted.

But look at the contract value. That is NOT going to buy enough guns for the US military.

They're just going to buy a relative handful of them, let them get 'evaluated' for years, and then say nothing while the program quietly gets killed off.

This is because A) Sig didn't solve the recoil problem B) there is still the ammo count dilemma and C) ammo weight didn't really go down much at all, and perhaps biggest of all D) the US got to see a preview of how a future war would go down with the Ukraine war. And they don't think the 6.8 ammo will make enough of a difference to make it worthwhile to switch.

The effect on barrel life of Sig's 6.8 cartridge is also supposed to be bad. I know Sig claims 12K rounds but that doesn't add up with a 70-80K psi cartridge at all.

What you'll see them do is double down BIG time on short range PGM'ed explosives, man portable rockets, spotting drones, and suicide drones instead. They're also going to change their tactics appropriately to suit these weapons. They're WAY more effective than 6.8 would be for the weight, allow the users to attack from safety, and are actually fairly cheap.

They'll also keep the scopes, which are apparently really good and work, from the NGSW program. But the gun and 6.8 ammo make no real sense so its going nowhere.

[TMS951]

So I think Sig makes mediocre guns, not that the M4 or m249 are the best thing ever, but what ever on the new guns, new guns are not my issue.

Here’s my big issue, a new round? And a stupid high pressure one at that?! Are we no longer going to run a common caliber as our Allies? This is the part that seems super dumb to me.

Instead of this stupidity why not say f the Geneva convention and it’s stupid clause on expanding ammo and just give troops good ammo for their guns. The idea cops can kill civilians with all sorts of ammo, but our troops can’t kill our enemy with any thing but a fmj is peak stupidity.