U.S. elite forces will receive next generation weapon system

Citing a Program Executive Officer Special Operations Forces Warrior Col. Joel Babbitt, Military.com reported that the U.S. Special Operations Forces plans to equipped with the conventional Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons, or NGSW.

“We are an enthusiastic supporter of the Army’s 6.8mm Next Generation Squad Weapons,” Col. Joel Babbitt, of Program Executive Officer Special Operations Forces Warrior, told Military.com recently. “We expect there will be Next Generation Squad Weapons in our formations as soon as we can receive them via fielding.”

The NGSW will combine the firepower and effective range of a machine gun with the precision and ergonomics of a rifle, yielding capability improvements in accuracy, range and lethality. The weapon will be lightweight, fire lightweight ammunition and have reduced acoustic and flash signature.

The NGSW Automatic Rifle will replace the M249 squad automatic weapon, and the NGSW Rifle will replace M4 carbine.

Versions of the NGSW are intended to be equipped with sophisticated technologies such as ballistic calculation, intelligent targeting and tracking capabilities, wireless communication and advanced camera-based capabilities.

The NGSW project consolidates ammunition and weapons as well as a power and data rail for integration of next-generation fire control systems. The overall system provides a lightweight cased and telescoped cartridge with greater lethality than the current, fielded squad automatic weapons and at a much lighter weight than the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. The 6.8 mm bullet, designed in-house, provides greater lethality and range than the Army’s current 5.56 mm bullets. This technology was transitioned to the Project Manager (PM) for Soldier Lethality (formerly the Project Manager for Soldier Weapons) within the Program Executive Office for Soldier in fiscal year 2019.

The goal of NGSW is to improve lethality, mobility and situational awareness of the dismounted infantryman, scout and engineer to overcome our nation’s adversaries and win on the battlefield.

The Next Generation Squad Weapon Science and Technology prototype. Photo by Daniel Cler, CCDC Armaments Center

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