US Army reveals prototypes for new 6.8 SPC rifles and machine guns.

General Dynamics Next Generation Squad Weapon entry. Military.com.

The US Army has revealed prototypes for the new 6.8 SPC rifles and machine guns set to replace the venerable M4 rifles and M249 machine guns. Military.com. All three competitors, General Dynamics, Textron Systems and Sig Sauer, displayed their weapons at an Army movie. The 6.8mm SPC has better ballistics at range, can defeat body armor, and works better on short barrel rifles. The Army seems pleased with the new weapons saying they have achieved all their goals with the weapons even the ones though impossible. General Dynamics have bullpup designs for their weapons, which allows a longer barrel length while still being compact. Textron uses unique plastic cased ammo while having a more conventional design. Sig Sauer is the most traditional of the three designs, with it being based on the M4 design with many upgrades. The Army will choose which of the three designs to use in 2022 and will begin fielding them in 2023.

My Comment:

All three of these companies designs look pretty cool. Out of the three I think I like Sig Sauer's the best, even though I am not a huge fan of the company. I like the more traditional M4 design over the bullpup design that General Dynamics has. 

However, given how poorly the Sig Saur handgun, the M17 and M18, ended up in terms of quality control I am not sure that they are the best company for the new rifle. The P320 and it's various were fairly famous for having a drop-fire problem that was ludicrously dangerous and was the result of poor design. They have fixed the design now but it might be something to worry about. 

As for the change from 5.56 to 6.8, I think it's justified. Much of the problem is that 5.56 wasn't really designed for long range combat through short barrled rifles. The M4's had a lot of problems in long range combat in Afghanistan and wasn't the best option for storming houses. 6.8 SPC is a better round in both cases. 

I think adopting a new round and rifle will likely result in changes in the civilian gun market as well. As you are almost certainly aware, the vast majority of sporting rifles today are chambered in 5.56 or the .223 sister round. One of the big advantages of the round is the fact that in a survival situation you wouldn't run out of ammo as you could always find military caches of 5.56. Once the Army adopts 6.8 that won't be the case anymore. 

Cost is an issue here as well as 6.8 SPC is a lot more expensive than .223/5.56. From what I have found, the best price you will find for 6.8 is just under $1 a round, which is a lot more than the 30 to 40 cents 5.56 costs. If civilians end up buying these rifles in large numbers the price will go down but it is a concern for the early adopters. 

Another advantage when the US Army adopts 6.8 is the fact that the stupid gun control argument that AR-15's are military rifles will be moot. After all, if the government uses something else you can't argue that these guns are military rifles, even though that argument is dumb in the first place. 

Regardless, it's a fairly exciting time. I always like seeing these new weapon systems and it will be interesting which company the Army chooses. My guess is that they will go with Sig Sauer due to the more traditional design and the fact that they won the contract for the US Army's handguns but it's way too early to tell. We will just have to wait until 2022 to find out!