Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1407740
The 6.8 x 51 mm ammunition of SIG's is also very convention- al. The necked brass case has a steel base. The commercial var- iant 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. SUMMARY Most firearms old hands know perfectly that the US Armed Forces has a long history of unsuccessful firearms research and development programs. SPIW, ACR, OICW, IC. Those programs are definitely best known. They share one common thing. They were expensive and none of them was succesul – none of the weapon systems were eventually introduced. Each of the pro- grams and the reason 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 remains a well-proven and effective weapon. Even if some of the new fire- arms 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 technical- ly demanding opportunity, but in opposition to ACR and OICW, meeting the requirements is possible. The problem with NGSW is somewhere else: to meet the reduced weight requirement, the increases the accuracy, increases the rate of fire and (for military users) allows more effective suppressing fire. Lighter weapons and ammunition increase mobility and lethality. Ditching these factors will not be easy and will definitely have consequences for infantry. And not only in the United States, but also in NATO as the NGSW may set a new standard in the whole organization. Use of "smart" optics will enable soldiers to effectively use the significantly increased lethality and range of new powerful rounds and its capability to defeat armor protected threats will be invaluable. The question is how the NGSW armed soldiers will be able to fight against lightly armed low-impulse firearms in the close distance? The other is, how quickly will be the NGSW-re- sistant lightweight body armor developed and the whole advan- tage will be gone? It seems that these questions might be answered even sooner than we could expect and the most demanding challenge for the NGSW will not be a field testing but the real life and technology advancements. number of rounds carried by soldiers must be limited. Even if recoil criteria will be met, due the physics it will be still more pow- erful than 5.56 NATO. Somehow, for the US Army it will be back to the 1950s. From whatever the reason was, most of the countries since that time moved to intermediate rounds and assault rifles. The advantages of such an approach are undeni- able and this can be confirmed by any one who was shooting in dynamic scenarios. Less recoil impulse 54 www.fragoutmag.com