Winchester Awarded NGSW Ammunition Manufacturing Facility Design Contract
The announcement of the winner of the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons program means the Army can now ramp up preparation for mass production of the ammunition to feed the new weapon systems. Lake City has previously provided the 6.8mm GP projectiles for the NGSWs but in the future, it will become the prime production hub for the Army’s various 6.8mm ammunition needs.
Winchester @ TFB:
Olin Winchester, who operate the US Army’s Lake City Ammunition Plant on behalf of the government, have been awarded a $15 million cost-plus contract to design a new manufacturing facility for the NGSW ammunition.
Here’s Olin Winchester’s full announcement:
Olin Winchester LLC, the largest manufacturer of small caliber ammunition for the U.S. military, today announced that the U.S. Army has awarded the company a $15 million cost-plus contract for the design of the Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) ammunition manufacturing facility.
Work will be performed at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant (LCAAP) in Independence, Missouri, the United States’ only government-owned, contractor-operated small caliber ammunition production facility.
“Winchester is honored to have been awarded this NGSW ammunition manufacturing facility design project at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant,” said Brett Flaugher, President of Winchester. “The ultimate design will incorporate best practices, key learnings, and stakeholder input to create a state-of-the-art production facility which delivers the U.S. Army an optimal manufacturing solution for NGSW ammunition. The NGSW ammunition produced at Lake City’s new facility will equip the American Warfighter for success on the battlefield for generations to come, helping to ensure the nation’s security and defense.”
Lake City recently announced a recruitment campaign aimed at hiring its Next Generation workforce.
“These skilled individuals will form the crucial first generation of the Winchester NGSW ammunition production team at Lake City,” said Mr. Flaugher. “This team’s focus will be to ensure every round of 6.8mm ammunition produced at Lake City is Warfighter ready.”
At a recent media event announcing the NGSW selection, Brigadier General Boruff, Joint Program Executive Officer, Armaments and Ammunition, emphasised that the program represents the US Army’s first major calibre and cartridge adoption in 65 years. It was confirmed that the new facility is planned to open in 2026 and will steadily ramp production. Once the Army has established its production facilities, SIG Sauer will become a second source manufacturer with Lake City AAP taking the lead by around 2029.
Managing Editor: TheFirearmBlog.com & Overt Defense.com. Matt is a British historian specialising in small arms development and military history. He has written several books and for a variety of publications in both the US and UK. Matt is also runs The Armourer's Bench, a video series on historically significant small arms. Here on TFB he covers product and current military small arms news. Reach Matt at: matt@thefirearmblog.com
More by Matthew Moss
Comments
Join the conversation
The first step a nation should take in protecting national security is
building up stockpiles of strategic materials. The United States did
this during the Cold War when it stored various materials whose foreign
suppliers were unstable or unfriendly. 1973 Arab oil embargo, the
United States established a Strategic Petroleum reserve. All nations
must have some type of strategic materials program. For example, a
nation may have its own ammunition plants, yet if it uses efficient
"just in time" inventory management, it may have only a few days worth
of imported metals on hand. Coal and metals are easy to store and do not
degrade. Large ingots of metal can be stacked outdoors near industrial
users for emergency use. These can't be destroyed by fire or air
strikes, and are too heavy to steal.The US should stockpile
- 6 months: Fuels for vehicles/planes
- 100-200 million tons of ingot steel
- 400,000 tons titanium
- 2 million tons of aluminum ingot
- 5,000 Tons rare earths
Long past time to replace both the 5.56mm and 7.62mm cartidges, M-4/M-16/M-249 weapons, but the wrong cartridge was chosen. The NGSW should have chosen something like the 6mm ARC to replace the 5.56mm and new weapons to go along with. The Sig MCX Virtus/Spear is probably the right NGSW-R and the Sig NGSW-AR is also probably the right choice also. Imagine if the NGSW had selected a 6.2mm/.243 bullet to fire from an optimized semi-composite cartridge made by True Velocity. This would have resulted in close to 5.56mm ammuntion mass, felt-recoil and weapon weight with very close to 7.62mm capability. The 6.8mm Fury selection, effectively a magnum cartridge, while more effective then the 7.62mm has barely lighter ammunition, near equal felt-recoil, uses a complicated and expensive cartridge with insanely higher chamber pressures that requires a heavy and expensive rifle compared to the M-4. I think the NGSW Program should be overturned and the True Velocity 6.8mm TVCM should be selected to replace the 7.62x51mm cartridge. True Velocity could be contracted to produce a new 6.2mm cartridge for the M250 and Sig could modifiy their NGSW-AR and Sig MCX Virtus/Spear for the same cartridge. A win-win solution for the companies and the military.