SIG Sauer has been awared a near $50 million contract to supply the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) with an suppressed upper receiver for their M4A1s. The contract will see SIG Sauer provide SOCOMM’s Suppressed Upper Receiver Group or SURG.

The Department of Defence confirmed the contract on the 27th July:

Sig Sauer Inc., Newington, New Hampshire, was awarded a $48,000,000 five-year, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract for the acquisition of the Suppressed Upper Receiver Group (SURG). The SURG weapon is an upgrade of the M4A1 lower receiver group in support of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) Procurement Division. Fiscal 2018 procurement funds in the amount of $24,620 are being obligated at the time of award. The majority of the work will be performed in Newington, New Hampshire, and is expected to be completed by July 2023. This contract was awarded through full and open competition. USSOCOM headquarters, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (H92430-18-D-0005).

The Suppressed Upper Receiver Group was one of SOCOM’s long term projects with the requirement first being identified in 2015. Back in March 2017, we reported that SOCOM had revised their 2016 SURG solicitation and again sought submissions from manufacturers.

This March 2017 solicitation was quickly followed by a presentation from Caleb McGee speaking on behalf of Johnathon Parker Lead SURG Engineer for NSWC Crane at the 2017 Armament Systems Forum. This presentation outlined some of SURG’s requirements including “Improved reliability and endurance over legacy unsuppressed systems, Improved thermal characteristics, Improved System durability and Reduce the toxic fume and blowback exposure to operators.” The presentation also outlined the programme’s testing criteria and methods and can be read here.

Details of the SURG’s exact configuration are not currently available and it is unclear what parts the conversion kit will contain. The $48 million contract will be fulfilled over 5 years on a indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity basis.

Source

EDIT: Removal of the incorrect theory that the SURG may be based on SIG’s SUR300 integrally surpressed conversion kit. This would likely not meet SOCOM’s requirements. (02/08/18)