Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1333129
SUMMARY Most firearms old hands know perfectly that the US Ar- med Forces has a long history of unsuccessful firearms research and development programs. SPIW, ACR, OICW, IC. Those programs are definitely best known. They sha- re one common thing. They were expensive and none of them was succesul – none of the weapon systems were eventually introduced. Each of the programs and the re- ason for their cancellation could have its own story in the magazine. Making it short: the requirements were wrong or too ambitious. The best is the enemy of the good, but we may love or hate the M16/M4 platform, but it still re- mains a well-proven and effective weapon. Even if some of the new firearms outperformed the M16 platform, they weren't good enough to justify the cost of adoption of the new gun. What is the difference about NGSW? It is definitely a technically demanding opportunity, but in opposition to ACR and OICW, meeting the requirements is possible. The problem with NGSW is somewhere else: to meet the re- duced weight requirement, the number of rounds carried recoil springs with hydraulic buffers which absorbs the energy of the bolt in the peak phase of recoil. As in the GD-OTS rifles, the SIG NGSW-R is a hybrid gas and recoil operated gun. Based on the available information, the current version of the MCX-SPEAR has significantly higher recoil than Textron or GD-OTS proposals, especially in fully automa- tic. It seems that even experienced shooters have pro- blems with controllability. Another similarity between SIG Sauer and GD-OTS pro- ducts is the use of technologically advanced 3D printed next-gen SLX suppressors. In theory, these new devices should effectively decrease sound, visual and thermal si- gnature when compared to the conventional ones. The 6.8 x 51 mm ammunition of SIG's is also very co- nventional. The necked brass case has a steel base. The commercial variant of the rounds, known as .277 SIG FURY, was SAAMI certified and is already available on the market. The commercial variant has 8.74 g projectile and 914 m/s muzzle velocity (from 16-inch barrel). Pressure is approx. 80,000 PSI, presumably the military cartridge will be more powerful. www.fragoutmag.com