Sig Sauer awarded U.S. Army next-gen squad weapon contract

Army plans to purchase over 29,000 Sig Sauer rifles worth over $221 million during 2023

Sig Sauer awarded U.S. Army next-gen squad weapon contract

Photo Credit: U.S. Army

The U.S. Army announced it has awarded a 10-year fixed price follow-on production contract to Sig Sauer for the manufacture and delivery of two Next Generation Squad Weapon variations (the XM5 Rifle and the XM250 Automatic Rifle) and the 6.8 Common Cartridge Family of Ammunition. Sig Sauer has defeated its competitors True Velocity and Textron, which unilaterally withdrew from the competition at the end of 2021.

The value of the initial delivery order on the contract is $20.4 million for weapons and ammunition that will undergo testing. The contract includes accessories, spares and contractor support. It also provides the other Department of Defense services and, potentially, Foreign Military Sales countries the opportunity to purchase the NGSW weapons.

The XM5 Rifle will replace the M4/M4A1 carbine within the close combat force, and the XM250 Automatic Rifle is the planned replacement for the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. About a month ago, the U.S. Army revealed that it intends to purchase 29,046 rifles during 2023 for a total value of over $221 million. The army plans to purchase another over 100,000 rifles in 2024-25 for a total value of about $720 million.

The XM5 and XM250 will be paired with the XM157 Fire Control, a ruggedized advanced fire control system that produced by American Vortex Optics. At the end of January, Israel defense reported that Vortex Optics has won a contract from the US Army to manufacture and supply 250,000 firing control units with a total value of $2.7 billion for a period of 10 years.

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