#NGSW

Photo Of The Day and we take a look at some of the most modern hand-held firearms and gear available today. The location is Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), which is a major United States Army installation located in Harford County, Maryland, near the town of Aberdeen. Established in 1917, it serves as one of the Army's oldest active proving grounds, with a primary mission focused on the research, development, testing, and evaluation of weapons, equipment, and technology.

Photo Of The Day – To the horizon and beyond. Just the other day, I had the pleasure of unboxing a new rifle. The wait has been a long one, and the journey to pick it up as well, and my excitement was hard to hide. However, it must be close to nothing compared to what these soldiers are experiencing as they’re unpacking the Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) system, in all its glory including optics and suppressors. 

You’re watching and reading TFB’s Photo Of The Day, where more and more images of the Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) are starting to surface. Here we have the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Screaming Eagles, stationed in Fort Campbell training on the system.

Photo Of The Day and this image wins the Internet today. Just take a look at the heat coming out from the suppressor. Out with the 5.56 mm and in with the 6.8 mm! The image was taken during the U.S. Army Cold Regions Test Center, where a multiweek test of the Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) was staged earlier this year.

Strike Industries, a major player in the firearms accessories sector, turned heads at SHOT 2024 with their newly released cable management system specifically designed for Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW). The system is designed to allow thread through and conceal the cables by rail-mounted accessories such as rail covers, grips, and attachment points.  This state-of-the-art system, which has performed favorably in military trials, earned commendations for its innovative design which prevents damage to and snagging of critical cords.

Strike Industries is a prolific manufacturer of firearms parts and accessories. This Las Vegas-based company’s product catalog spans a huge array of components for ARs, AKs, CZ Scorpions, a variety of handguns, several shotguns, optics mounts, modular pistol chassis, and much more. One particular product category they’re proud of is their Cable Management System. With the significant proliferation of wired gun accessories like weapon lights and infrared laser aiming devices used with night vision, more shooters than ever have cables running across their handguards. Since plenty of buyers would prefer a more elegant solution to this issue than the old-school methods of tape or Ranger bands, quite a few companies have come out with cable management attachments that affix to Picatinny or M-LOK rails. However, it has now been announced that the SI version will be the one that the US Army has chosen for its NGSW program. Get more details in the press release copied below.

Photo Of The Day and we’re back looking at the training and testing of the Army’s new 6.8mm family of Next Generation Squad Weapon-Rifle (NGSW-R), NGSW-Automatic Rifle (AR) and the NGSW-Fire Control (FC) systems.

It’s because of images like these that TFB’s Photo Of The Day exists. Above you see a Ranger with the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, as he engages targets during squad live fire (blank iteration), while operationally testing the Next Generation Squad Weapon-Rifle (NGSW-AR) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

I met VK Integrated Systems at the last SHOT Show last January. They make a smart stock, called the SIOS-C, that connects to ATAK. Well, they recently donated two of their prototype firearms, the NGSW-R and NGSW-AR to the Cody Firearms Museum.

Earlier this month Thales Australia announced the completion of construction on a new advanced manufacturing building at Lithgow Arms. The new facility features state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment and is intended to foster ‘collaboration across research institutions, SME partners, and key industrial partners to create the soldier systems and small arms of the future’. Thales Australia invested $6.5 million (AUD) in the project with funding also coming from the New South Wales Government via a $1.12 million (AUD) grant from the NSW Regional Job Creation Fund.

Winchester have been awarded several new contracts to produce ammunition for the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons – the XM7 rifle and XM250 machine gun. The contracts will be undertaken at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant (LCAAP) in Independence, Mo. which is run by Winchester, on behalf of the Department of Defense.

What a fantastic time to be alive! Here we are again with our Photo Of The Day, which seems to be from the future, but from a future that exists already today. Above we have a rare sight. We see a soldier firing an unsuppressed XM-7 Rifle with the XM-157 Fire Control. The fact that the rifle does not have a suppressor is unusual. The photo is from a controllability trial of the Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW), and the soldier is shooting from the standing unsupported firing position. The location is the Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD in November 2022.

The US Department of Defense has awarded Winchester a cost-plus contract to carry out a manufacturing study to produce tracer projectiles for the US Army’s new family of 6.8mm weapons. The development will take place at the Lake City Ammunition Plant which Olin Winchester operates on the US Army’s behalf.

When SIG Sauer and SIG Sauer Electro-Optics first announced the introduction of their SIG Spear (M5) rifle they also paired it with a specific trim of the TANGO6T 1-6x24mm LPVO optic. This specific trim was designed and accepted by the U.S. Military and was dubbed the TANGO6T DVO or Direct View Optic. This optic system comes complete with the ALPHA4 mount, lay-flat flip caps, and an anti-reflection device and is now being made available for purchase by the general public for the first time.

Back in May, following the US Army’s decision to select the SIG Sauer submission to the Next Generation Squad Weapons program, Lone Star Future Weapons lodged a formal complaint with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (the GAO) against the US Army’s choice. The Government Accountability Office is essentially an independent arbitrator which examines bid protests and reports ruling based on their investigation. The GAO defines a bid protest as a challenge to the terms of a solicitation or the award of a federal contract.