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On Tuesday, the U.S. Army officially selected a new rifle and infantry rifle for frontline troops.
The guns, developed by small arms manufacturer Sig Sauer, have been officially designated the
XM5 Rifle and XM250 Automatic Rifle. The XM5 Rifle will represent a major departure
from the M16 series of weapons, first adopted in 1967 and still in use today.
The XM5 Rifle will replace the M4A1 Carbine as the Army’s close-combat weapon,
while the XM250 Automatic Rifle will replace the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon.
Both weapons will be equipped with the M157 Next-Generation Squad Weapon-Fire Control
(NGSW-FC), an optic designed to allow troops to observe and hit targets from greater distances.
The rifle or carbine is the basic weapon issued to infantry, special forces,
engineers, and other combat support units. Most soldiers in a typical nine-person infantry squad,
for example, will carry a rifle or carbine. These guns are meant to be accurate and directly engage
enemy troops. Automatic weapons or rifles, on the other hand, are only carried by two
squad members and are designed to put out a large volume of fire. They are meant to suppress enemy
forces to allow rifle and carbine-armed infantry to close in and destroy them.
The M4A1 Carbine is a shortened, improved version of the original M16 assault rifle,
adopted during the Vietnam War era. The original M16 was notorious for jamming,
but the current weapon is very reliable. The problem, as far as the Army is concerned,
is that the rifle still uses the 5.56-millimeter caliber rifle round. Body armor has become
a standard issue in modern armies, and the concern is that the older round lacks the punch,
even with armor-piercing upgrades, to ensure that it can penetrate body armor.
The XM5 rifle is based on Sig Sauer’s MCX series of pistols, carbines, and rifles.
The MCX uses a short-stroke piston, rather than the M16 series direct-impingement
operating system, which results in a rifle that requires less cleaning to remain functional.
Details for the XM5 are lacking, but the MCX Spear, the civilian version of the weapon
the company describes as a “near match,” is 34.1 inches long, weighs 8.38 pounds,
utilizes a two-stage match trigger, and is fed from 20-round magazines. The XM5
will also be equipped with a suppressor; recent studies conducted by the U.S. Marines indicate
infantry units equipped with suppressors can more effectively communicate on the battlefield,
leading to better overall performance.
The M249 Squad Automatic Weapon was originally adopted in the mid-1980s
as a means of boosting squad firepower. The M249 has a higher rate of fire than the M4A1
and is intentionally less accurate to provide greater fire dispersion on the battlefield.
The M249 suffers from reliability issues, however, and also uses the same 5.56 rounds as the M4A1.
The XM250 is a scaled-down version of Sig Sauer’s MG-338 machine gun. Sig says the
XM250 “doubles the effective range and is 40 percent lighter than the current M249
while maintaining the preferred belt-fed operation, with reduced felt recoil to
increased accuracy.” The XM250 will also be equipped with a suppressor.
Both weapons will be chambered for the new 6.8-millimeter (.277-caliber) round,
which the Army describes as superior in lethality and range to common battlefield rounds such as
5.56-millimeter and 7.62-millimeter. Both will also be equipped with the new XM157 Fire Control
system. The XM157, developed by Vortex Optics, is a variable optic scope with 1x8 magnification.
The scope also includes a “backup etched reticle, laser rangefinder,
ballistic calculator, atmospheric sensor suite, compass, Intra-Soldier Wireless,
visible and infrared aiming lasers, and a digital display overlay,” according to the U.S. Army.
The Army plans to buy up to 250,000 XM5 and XM250 weapons,
and once the weapons are in service, it will drop the X-prefix, renaming them the M5 and M250.
The U.S. Army, Army Reserve, and National Guard total 1,091,000 personnel, so not everyone is
going to get one of the “next-generation” rifles. Combat service support troops, like truck drivers,
medical personnel, and others will stick with the M4A1 carbine. The U.S. Marines
will also buy a small number of the new weapons, according to the Army Times.
The XM5 and XM250 represent the biggest shift in Army small arms in more than half a century. The
Army has used the 5.56-millimeter round since Vietnam, and the shift to 6.8-millimeter will
likely inspire many allies to make the same move. However, the most important advance is not in the
new rifle or ammunition, but in the new XM157 fire control optic, which automatically judges
the distance to the target and corrects the user’s aim. Such an advance, which helps shooters hit a
target at longer ranges with minimal training, is probably the most important advance in infantry
small arms in a century. Critics will also note it could have been fitted to existing weapons.
“The first delivery of XM5s and XM250s to the Army is scheduled for 2Q Fiscal Year
2023,” a representative for the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal tells Popular Mechanics.
“These weapons are intended for production qualification testing and not for fielding.”
The Army has to mass enough ammunition for both combat and training requirements before
fielding the NGSW, which will require boosting production of the new 6.8mm round by Sig Sauer
and the Lake City Ammunition Plant in Missouri.
That facility made ammunition for all three competitors during the NGSW program,
Boruff said. Some existing equipment there will be modified for greater output of the 6.8 round
while a dedicated 6.8 manufacturing line is constructed in a new building,
Boruff said. Lake City’s new building should begin producing ammunition in fiscal years 2025 or 2026,
but production elsewhere will be sufficient to field the NGSW until it is up and running.
There is no indication that the Army will begin fielding any other new weapons in 6.8mm
rather than the standard NATO calibers at this time,
but efforts are underway to convert some existing arms to the new intermediate round. The Army is
actively looking for an M240 6.8mm conversion kit for the M240B and/or M240L machine guns,
both of which are chambered in 7.62mm weapons while preserving the “durability, reliability,
and function of the M240 weapon platform,” the Army said in an ongoing solicitation.
Meanwhile, True Velocity has test-fired the TVCM composite-cased ammunition it developed for the
GD-OTS/LoneStar entry on an M134 Minigun and other weapons. The company asserts that a simple
barrel change is enough to allow weapons like the M240 to fire 6.8mm ammunition instead of 7.62mm.
Fielding a new squad weapon system with a completely new caliber of ammunition
is a major undertaking for an Army that has not significantly
altered its standard small arms in six decades, though not for lack of trying.
Critics already have piled on the NGSW program as headed for the same graveyard as the futuristic
XM8, developed by Heckler & Koch and abandoned by the Army after years of testing.
The War Zone will continue to keep tabs on the NGSW as testing continues and fielding nears.