The US Army’s ongoing Next Generation Squad Weapon program has spawned capable designs from three companies. While the NGSW program has not yet selected a winner it was inevitable that the companies would begin to offer their weapons to other nations seeking to [Read More…]
Battlefield 2042 has just been announced as the sixth instalment of the extremely popular Battlefield multiplayer first-person shooter video game. Each instalment of the game has featured a slightly different theme from the last with the previous [Read More…]
True Velocity have made a very interesting announcement about their 6.8 TVCM ammunition which was originally developed for the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) program. True Velocity have successfully chambered several 7.62x51mm chambered weapon [Read More…]
Much digital ink has been spilled over the last several years regarding the US Army’s NGSW (Next Generation Squad Weapons) Program. Most of the rifles/carbines and machine guns currently employed by America’s soldiers are not particularly modern, by any [Read More…]
It has been a while since we had news from the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons program, the last updates we got were on the final prototype and ammunition deliveries being made for the next stage of the Army’s evaluations. Now some interesting news [Read More…]
SIG Sauer have announced the completion of the final delivery of their Next Generation Squad Weapon System prototypes and ammunition to the U.S. Army. The delivery includes finalised weapon prototypes which have been optimised following Army feedback from the [Read More…]
In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves meets with Jason St. John of the SIG Defense Strategies Group to talk about SIG’s entry for the NGSW (“Next Generation Squad Weapon”) service rifle, the SIG MCX Spear in 6.8x51mm. In this video, we look at (and of course, shoot) the MCX Spear and talk [Read More…]
True Velocity have confirmed delivery of their final shipment of over 625,000 rounds of their 6.8mm hybrid ammunition for the U.S. Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon program. True Velocity shared a photo of the shipment on pallets about to leave the factory with some [Read More…]
With the Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) program underway, the US army is considering changes in squad size. Working with the basic assumption that introducing new weapons might mean a change in optimal squad organization, the Army’s Maneuver Battle Lab recently [Read More…]
A visit by Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, to Textron Systems’ Hunt Valley facility near Baltimore, MD gave us some fresh photographs of Textron’s new Next Generation Squad Weapon program prototypes. We have two photos, one of a Textron employee [Read More…]
Textron Systems, one of the three vendors in the running for the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon program held a media panel earlier this week. The panel was lead by Wayne Prender, who is Textron’s Senior Vice President, Applied Technologies and [Read More…]
Its been a little while since we last saw Textron’s Next Generation Squad Weapon prototypes but with the 2020 Annual Meeting and Exposition coming up Textron have released a new promo video. Check out the video below: Earlier this year at SHOT Show 2020 we caught [Read More…]
True Velocity have announced that they have supplied the US Army with 170,000 rounds of their polymer cased 6.8mm TVCM ammunition. The delivery was made in May in support of the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon first phase of prototype testing. From our [Read More…]
It has been 11 months since the US Army awarded three OTA contracts as part of its Next Generation Squad Weapon program. Despite the uncertainty around the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the program remains on track and set to begin its next major phase. TFB had the [Read More…]
Good morning everyone and welcome back to another edition of TFB’s Silencer Saturday brought to you by Yankee Hill Machine, manufacturers of the awesome Turbo K 5.56 suppressor. Last week we discussed how everyone needs at least one rimfire suppressor. This week we [Read More…]
Today’s photo of the day comes from General Dynamics-OTS who are current contenders in the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon program. The photo was shared on General Dynamics Ordnance & Tactical Systems twitter page earlier this year. It features [Read More…]
The US Army is forging ahead with the evaluation of the prototype Next Generation Squad Weapon rifles and automatic rifles and it has been confirmed that U.S. Special Operations Command is both involved in the program and watching its developments closely. SOCOM has [Read More…]
With the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons program pushing ahead, despite the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic, the three companies involved have shipped their prototype weapons. SIG Sauer commemorated the dispatch of their NGSW-Rifles and NGSW-Automatic Rifles [Read More…]
The US Marine Corps has recently undergone a top down doctrinal reevaluation of its future role. As part of these changes in the make up of the Corps have been planned and now a brand new initiative has also been launched – Marine Corps Systems Command’s [Read More…]
Earlier this week we reported that the US Army had issued its first OTA for the Next Generation Squad Weapon Fire Control optic to Vortex Optics. We now learn that L3Harris Technologies has also been awarded an OTA. L3Harris Technologies have prior experience in [Read More…]
Despite the Coronavirus pandemic the US Army continues its Next Generation Squad Weapon program and has issued an OTA (or Other Transaction Authority) award to Wisconsin-based Vortex soliciting them to produce a prototype Next Generation Squad Weapon-Fire [Read More…]
From the Department of Defense’s budget justification books for the fiscal year 2021 we get an idea of the procurement scale and timescale for the winning entry/entries to the Next Generation Squad Weapon program. We also get an idea of how many Next Generation [Read More…]
![[SHOT 2020] MARS M19 Mustang Rifle (1)](https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/SHOT-2020-MARS-M19-Mustang-Rifle-1-660x260.jpg)
Last year at SHOT Show 2019, I had a chance to take a look at a prototype rifle by MARS Inc. Back then it was in an early development stage with most parts being in white. Later, during 2019, we learned that MARS and Cobalt Kinetics submitted a rifle to NGSW trials [Read More…]
This year’s SHOT Show was the first to have models representing all three of the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon program prototypes. SIG Sauer had prototypes on display at their stand (which TFB got our first look at back in September at DSEI 2019) [Read More…]
This year’s SHOT Show was the first to have models representing all three of the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon program prototypes. While SIG had actual prototypes on display (which TFB got our first look at back in September at DSEI 2019) both [Read More…]
SIG Sauer have released their 2020 catalog and there’s lots of new products to get excited about but one thing that jumped out at me was the introduction of a new cartridge – 277 SIG Fury. Developed by SIG Sauer the new round is the result of their work on [Read More…]
TFB’s Matthew Moss did an excellent article about the RM277 – General Dynamics’ Next Generation Squad Weapon and in today’s Photo Of The Day we will follow up with some more speculations. And the photo above of course, which is the main attraction! [Read More…]
General Dynamics have closely guarded their Next Generation Squad Weapon prototypes, despite my best efforts they stuck to their guns and saved the big reveal for this year’s AUSA Exposition in Washington, D.C.There have been murmurings that their submission would [Read More…]
The US Army, US Marine Corps and British Army are collaborating on developing new lightweight small arms ammunition. In recent years there has been an increasing interest in hybrid ammunition, especially those using polymer case components. Todd Townsend, supervisor of [Read More…]
Recently the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons program moved into its next phase, with three companies down selected, one of these was SIG Sauer. We had the pleasure of sitting down to speak with SIG Sauer’s CEO, Ron Cohen, at the 2019 Defence & [Read More…]