U.S. Army Fort Campbell Garrison Commander Col. Christopher Midberry fires a Next-Generation Squad ... [+]
The Army says the first unit to field its new rifle and machine gun will have them by next March. After getting the rifle, one wonders if they'll use it as designed?
The news that an undisclosed unit in the 101st Airborne Division will debut the new 6.8 millimeter XM7 rifle and XM250 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW - a light machine gun) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024 was relayed to Army Times this week.
The guns will replace the legacy M4 and M249 rifle and SAW in Army close combat units like the 101st. Non frontline-combat units like support battalions will continue to use the M4/M249 for years to come. Those weapons fire a lighter 5.56mm round which years of Army studies found to be inadequate against proliferating Russian and Chinese body armor.
The imminent fielding of the XM7 and XM250 bodes well for their manufacturer, New Hampshire-based SIG Sauer and for Wisconsin-based Vortex Optics whose subsidiary, Sheltered Wings, will provide the guns’ XM157 fire control optics (i.e. sight).
The current 10-year Army contract for Sig Sauer has a ceiling value of $4.5 billion and the Vortex Optics-Sheltered Wings XM157 cost ceiling is set at $2.7 billion. The numbers are significant but whether the companies will realize their full values will rest almost entirely on the soldier experience.
I’ve been fortunate to experience firing the new rifle and machine gun twice, first at SIG Sauer’s New Hampshire facility and a second time at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland where I used the XM157 sight for the first time. As I wrote previously that experience was impressive. It also indicates that the operational experience of those using the rifle may be mixed.
As I observed, upon picking up the XM7 you immediately notice how substantial it feels compared with its M4 predecessor. But you also notice its weight, particularly its forward weight at the end of the barrel where the suppressor is. According to the Army, the XM-7 weighs 10.07 pounds. The M4 is 6.4 pounds.
That’s a meaningful difference. Army soldiers have repeatedly noted the forward weight and the overall weight of the rifle in testing and at soldier touchpoints.
In fact, a photo from a live fire event where soldiers got to shoot the XM7 during the Maneuver Warfare Conference in Fort Moore, GA in September illustrates a possible “modification” 101st troops might make in the field.
Program Executive Office-Soldier conducted a live fire event of the Next Generation Squad Weapon ... [+]
The soldier here is firing the XM7 without its noise suppressor. In doing so, he has taken the awkward forward weight off of the rifle and reduced its overall weight, weight that he won’t have to carry as he lugs the weapon on long patrols. This could be a modification that XM7-weilding soldiers will make in the field.
The XM7’s suppressor is quite effective in reducing the noise of firing the gun, a feature that, along with its increased range, not only increases shooter concealment potential but helps members of a squad communicate verbally in the midst of combat.
Despite that advantage, losing the weight may be more important to soldiers physically stressed by long days of combat engagement and maneuver.
The Army is aware of the weight problem. At the Aberdeen Proving Ground live-fire event, I asked Army Lieutenant Colonel Micah Rue, project manager for soldier weapons at the Service’s PEO Soldier program office, whether the XM-7’s weight will be an issue and whether the Army is considering changes that might help.
“We’re focusing on the weight,” he acknowledged. “We’re looking at what we can do within the scope of the contract to reduce the weight of the system. SIG Sauer is on contract to do that.”
Lt.Col. Rue told me that the Next Generation Squad Weapon (the XM7/250 program name) team was looking at the possibility of balancing some of the weight of the gun aft and other possibilities without specifying whether they would center on the gun’s suppressor or other architecture.
“In three weeks, we have a kickoff with SIG Sauer and we’re going to look at all of that,” Rue said at the time.
That would have been in mid-October. There has been no news since then but the Army still has about three months before its first unit goes operational with the new rifle and machine gun.
If no changes to the rifle have been made by that time, keep your eye out for more photos of XM7-wielding 101st soldiers with the “suppressor delete”.
