The decision by the U.S. Army on which of the competing Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) offerings from SIG Sauer and Lonestar Future Weapons will be selected as the NGSW is expected to be made in the latter part of the year. So whilst we wait which of the 6.8mm weapons will be the future assault rifle and support weapon, the U.S. Army is looking into allocating budget to buy 29,000 NGSW rifles for soldiers to test.

According to Military.com, the plan to get more prototypes of the offerings is reflected in the annual budget plans of the U.S. Army as revealed last Monday. The budget will be submitted to Congress for approval as they hold the purse strings.

With the additional prototypes for testing, more soldiers are going to be able to try the weapons in under the different conditions and situations. Such a bigger batch would mean more information that that will be collected from their field use that it will help in the decision making on which of the offerings to choose.

There are already 12,000 units purchased early this year and last year 3,000 units were bought. If the budget gets approved, that will make a total of around 45,000 prototypes being tested.

The NGSW program of the U.S. Army is a very much anticipated one as it will start the end of the use of the M4 and the M249 as mainstay weapons of the U.S. Army. The 5.56mm round has been in use since the introduction of the M16A1 in 1964. The decision to use the 6.8mm round for the future service weapon is due to the concern that the 5.56mm round is unable to penetrate the body armour of near peer enemies. The M240L, which fires the 7.62mm round, will still remain in use.

The decision will also affect allies, especially NATO allies, as they will also look into future arms purchases that will enable them to use the 6.8mm given the need to be compatible in the use of equipment amongst members of the alliance.

As for civilians in the U.S., True Velocity, which acquired Lonestar Future Weapons, will be offering a civilian version of their NGSW which they call “Genesis.”

Top photo: SIG Sauer NGSW-AR LMG 6.8 (SIG Sayer photo)