The Army has ramped up the production of the replacements for the M4, M249, and M240B rifle/machine guns to be issued to close combat forces.
The M4’s replacement, the XM7, is the U.S. Army variant of the SIG MCX Spear, a 6.8×51mm (.277 in), gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle.
The biggest change is the switch to 6.8mm ammunition and 70 fewer rounds carried in a combat load compared to its M4 5.56mm predecessor.
“We haven’t fielded a gun in this magnitude to the close combat force since the M16 started fielding in 1967,” said Col. Jason Bohannon, the manager of the soldier lethality portfolio at Program Executive Office-Soldier.
The Army’s replacement for the previous Squad Automatic Weapon “SAW,” the M249, is the XM250, a SIG LMG 6.8, a gas-operated, belt-fed light machine gun designed by SIG Sauer for the U.S. Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon Program in 2022.
To meet the demand for close combat forces’ upcoming deployments, the Army has had to increase its rate of production of both rifles, their optics, and the 6.8mm ammunition, according to officials.
“We’re fielding as the material is coming off the line, directly to the units,” Col. Bohannon said.
According to Col. Bohannon, the Army is aiming to stockpile 6.8mm ammunition for training, deployments, and war reserves.
The 6.8mm round allows shooters to shoot further distances and penetrate more targets than the 5.56 round.
The Army says it will make soldiers more effective in more modern, urban-type battlefield settings.
For now, the Army is only issuing the weapons to close combat units and has already issued them a battalion in the 1st Brigade, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
A few Army infantry units in the Army Reserves, National Guard, and the 25th Infantry Division will be issued, if not already, the rifles before the end of this year.
Two of the three Army Ranger battalions will have to wait until after 2025 to have them issued but their units have already had access to other rifles such as the MK 16 SCAR-L and the
MK 17 SCAR-H -the 7.62 x 51mm variant.
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