Latest news with #M4A1
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sig Sauer's XM7 Rifle Gets Army's Seal Of Approval Despite Controversy
Sig Sauer's controversial 6.8x51mm XM7 service rifle has now received a formal standard type classification, with the official designation changing to M7. This is a vote of confidence for the weapon weeks after an Army captain publicly criticized the rifle as potentially unsafe, ineffective, and overly expensive, claims that the service and Sig Sauer subsequently vehemently rebutted. You can read more about that in our deep dive here. Along with the M7, Sig Sauer's XM250 light machine gun (now designated the M250) achieved Type Classification-Standard status, the Army announced yesterday. The service described this as a 'major program milestone' for the Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) program, which includes both guns, as well as the XM157 computerized optic and the accompanying family of 6.8x51mm ammunition. This new status means the weapons meet 'the Army's stringent standards for operational performance, safety, and sustainment,' per the Army. 'This milestone reflects our commitment to delivering cutting-edge capabilities that give our Soldiers the tactical advantage and lethality required on the battlefield,' said Col. Jason Bohannon, Project Manager Soldier Lethality. 'We remain focused on equipping our force with the most reliable and effective tools to ensure mission success.' The new classification for these weapons ensures that they are 'acceptable for Army use prior to spending procurement funds at the Full-Rate Production Decision Review,' Alton E. Stewart, an Army spokesman, told TWZ Wednesday afternoon. It 'satisfies DoD requirement to designate when a system is approved for service use.' Army combat experiences from the Global War on Terror, especially operations in Afghanistan, where reports often emerged of U.S. forces being outranged, helped drive the core requirement for guns firing larger rounds that offer greater range and terminal ballistic performance. Concerns about improving adversary body armor were also a factor. The M7 and the M250, respectively, are set to replace a significant portion of the M4A1 carbines and M249 Squad Automatic Weapons (SAW) now in Army service. Both the M4A1 and M249 are chambered to fire the 5.56x45mm cartridge. As we previously explained, the M7 is 'a 6.8x51mm version of Sig Sauer's increasingly popular MCX Spear family of rifles. Though Sig's MCX family is a separate development, the core design is derived from the AR-15/M16 pattern family of rifles, and upper receivers from certain versions of the former can be directly paired with lower receivers from the latter with the help of an adapter. The overall configurations of guns in both families are very similar, as are the basic ergonomics and control arrangements.' 'MCX rifles notably use a gas piston operating mechanism rather than the direct impingement method found on AR-15/M16 types. Direct impingement (DI) involves propellant gases directly blowing into the main action to cycle it, which can more quickly lead to fouling on key components without regular cleaning. Piston systems that keep gas away from a gun's internal works can offer improved overall reliability in certain circumstances, although they tend to be heavier than their DI counterparts.' The Army's new designation of these weapons won't affect how they are being fielded, Stewart told us, but it serves to further rebut a scathing critique by Army Capt. Braden Trent. He presented his findings, which come from an unclassified student thesis, at the annual Modern Day Marine exposition in Washington, D.C., on April 29. The Army infantry officer did his work while attending the Expeditionary Warfare School, part of the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia. What is now designated the M7 has suffered from serious reliability and other issues, including having cartridge cases 'ripped apart by the internal pressure of the system,' excessive barrel wear, and regular breakages of key components, Trent stated. He claimed that these problems, together with a host of other factors, including the weight and recoil of the rifle, make the gun 'unfit' for its intended purpose. Trent said he observed and/or learned of several other serious technical issues after being given the chance to interview 'over 150 soldiers, maintainers, and leaders,' as well as inspect a sample set of 23 XM7 rifles, all from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. The brigade's 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment was the first operational Army unit to begin receiving XM7s and the rest of the NGSW family of systems. In an interview with TWZ on the symposium's show floor, Sig Sauer vociferously pushed back on Trent's assertions. 'I believe that Captain Trent had some shortcomings and difficulties in understanding the totality of the NGSW program and some significant blind spots into the progress that the NGSW program has made over the last let's call it 24 months,' Jason St. John, senior director of strategic products for the Defense Strategies Group at Sig Sauer, told us. 'By him not having any clarity on any of the engineering change proposal efforts, and understanding of the 101st [Airborne Division's] fielding efforts, the actual pacing of the program … and really the ongoing product improvement efforts that the program office and Sig Sauer are doing in concert with each other, really clouded his perspective, and I believe his opinions that he represented. There are significant misrepresentations and holes in those statements [that he made].' In 2022, the Army awarded Sig Sauer a 10-year, $20.4 million initial production contract to produce M7s and M250s, following a 27-month evaluation of three competing weapon systems. By that point, more than 500 soldiers, Marines, and special operators had conducted a combined 20,000 hours of testing as part of the NGSW program, according to the Army. As of last year, the Army said its 'acquisition objectives' included the purchase of 111,428 M7s and 13,334 M250s. 'It's an exciting day for everyone involved, whether that is Sig Sauer, the U.S. Army as a whole, and especially the soldiers, who can have confidence that they are being equipped to enhance their mission success and truly possess tactical superiority in their small arms,' St. John told us Wednesday afternoon in an email. There is the possibility that other branches of the U.S. military could adopt the M7 in the future. At Modern Day Marine in April, the service noted that it had just recently completed an evaluation of the NGSW family of systems and had begun processing the results to determine what, if any, steps forward will be taken. For now, the primary arm of the Marines remains the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR), which is, in turn, a variant of the HK416. The HK416 is a gas-piston derivative of the AR-15/M16 series. It is unclear whether or how the Army's type classification decision might affect the Marines' plans. We have reached out to the Corps and will update this story with any pertinent information provided. The Army is now continuing to move ahead with its plans to field what are now designated the M7 rifle and M250 light machine gun. Contact the author: howard@
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Army infantry officer calls new XM7 ‘unfit for use as a modern service rifle'
An Army infantry officer has made a series of criticisms of the Army's Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle, which is meant to replace the M4A1 carbine. The Army introduced the XM7 rifle and XM250 light machine gun — both of which chamber a 6.8mm round — partly due to concerns that modern body armor could stop the 5.56mm rounds fired by the M4A1 and M249. The bigger round is also meant to give the XM7 an increased range based on lessons from Afghanistan. But Army Capt. Braden Trent presented his research into the XM7 at the Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C. — research he claims shows that the rifle is inferior to the M4A1. As part of his research, Trent said he visited the 1st Brigade Combat Team 'Bastogne,' 101st Airborne Division, which was the first active-duty Army unit to receive the XM7. Trent said he interviewed more than 150 soldiers and disassembled 23 XM7 rifles. His 52-page report on the subject, which included testing with experts, ballistic research, and input from soldiers, concluded that the XM7 is 'unfit for use as a modern service rifle,' Trent said on April 29 during his presentation at Modern Day Marine. Trent said his research has shown that soldiers equipped with the XM7 in a live-fire exercise quickly run out of ammunition because its magazine only holds 20 rounds. He also said that gouges and scratches can form in the barrel after firing more than 2,000 rounds, the rifle's weight makes it hard for soldiers to maneuver. Trent also said that soldiers told him that nearly all of their engagements in a military exercise were taking place within 300 meters, negating the XM7's advantage at longer ranges, he said. 'The XM7 is a tactically outdated service rifle that would be better classified as a designated marksman rifle, if that,' Trent said during his presentation. 'This rifle is a mechanically unsound design that will not hold up to sustained combat on a peer-on-peer conflict.' However, a representative of Sig Sauer, which the Army selected in 2022 to build the Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle and machine gun, disputed Trent's findings. 'We have a very large staff of individuals that work daily on that rifle to ensure that every aspect of its performance is scrutinized, every aspect of its safety is criticized,' said Jason St. John, the senior director of strategic products for Sig Sauer. 'We are highly confident that we have provided the U.S. Army soldier with a very robust weapon system that is not only safe, but it performs at the highest levels.' St. John said he did not want to issue a point-by-point rebuttal for all of Trent's conclusions 'because most of them are patently false.' David H. Patterson, Jr., a spokesman for Program Executive Office Soldier, also said that the Next Generation Squad Weapon is well suited for close combat. Specifically, the weapon 'provides greater effects within 300 meters,' he said. 'As the secretary of the Army and chief of staff highlighted in their Army Transformation Initiative memo to the force, 'Yesterday's weapons will not win tomorrow's wars,'' Patterson wrote in an email on Monday to Task & Purpose. 'The Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) program provides unmatched lethality to our Close Combat Force (CCF). The Army is committed to accepting soldier feedback and enhancing weapons for optimal use.' Trent is currently a student at the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Warfare School and was presenting his personal views on the subject, and his research for the school's fellowship program is not sponsored or endorsed by the Army, Marine Corps, or Defense Department, according to his research paper, which was obtained by Task & Purpose. In a statement provided by a Marine Corps spokesman, Trent said he was selected by the Expeditionary Warfare School to conduct a fellowship project on small arms lethality that focused on the XM7. 'The project began as a fact-finding effort to evaluate how the XM7 enhances soldier lethality,' Trent said in the statement. 'The goal was to provide unclassified, accessible information to soldiers and leaders to support informed decision-making at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels when employing the new system to maximize lethality.' Trent is scheduled to graduate from the Expeditionary Warfare School on Thursday as a Distinguished Graduate, and he is also the recipient of the Yeosock Memorial Award for the best sister service writing project at Marine Corps University, according to the Marine Corps. The Modern Day Marine exhibition encourages collaboration and the sharing of ideas, especially among noncommissioned officers and company grade officers who use some weapons and systems showcased at the exhibition, said Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Nick Mannweiler. 'While it remains solely his personal opinion, Capt. Trent's presentation exemplifies the type of dialogue and feedback we wanted with student presentations,' Mannweiler wrote in an email to Task & Purpose. 'This is what the profession of arms looks like.' In his research project, Trent wrote that his paper is 'in no way intended to disparage the United States Army, acquisitions personnel, or private contractors/manufacturers.' Trent also wrote that the Army can still 'rectify the decision to adopt the XM7,' adding that soldiers deserve to go into battle knowing they have been given the best weapons available. 'They deserve to be given a weapon that is safe and efficient to operate,' Trent wrote. 'They deserve a rifle capable of providing the fire superiority they need to close with and destroy the enemy. The men and women of the infantry have always fought at the fullest extent of their capabilities, willing to achieve victory at the price of 'the last full measure of devotion.' The Army must continue to provide them with weapons capable of matching that devotion.' The most serious problem Trent said he noticed was that some XM7 rifles developed a scratch or gouge in their barrel after firing more than 2,000 rounds, Trent said. 'This can lead to all kinds of problems with accuracy and safety, and I recommend a full investigation by those who are more qualified — engineers with bore scopes, etc, that I did not have available with me during my time at 1st Brigade,' Trent said. In his project paper, Trent wrote, 'Surface damage to the rifling was visible to the eye at the same location on rifles that had exceeded the 2,000 round count.' But St. John said Trent's findings on gouges and scratches in the XM7's rifle barrel were based on a superficial examination of the weapon. 'Capt. Trent looked down a barrel naked eye, didn't use a boroscope, didn't use any gauging to determine if there was any sort of erosive nature to that weapon system, is indistinct in his ability to say what he witnessed other than he believes by naked eye looking down a barrel with natural light that he witnessed some issues,' St. John said. According to St. John, the XM7 can fire more than 10,000 rounds before the barrel fails — twice the program's requirement. Patterson, the Army spokesperson, said the service fired more than 20,000 rounds per barrel while testing the XM7 and found that the rifle's performance and accuracy were not affected. Another issue raised by Trent is the 20-round capacity of the XM7's magazine, compared with the M4A1, which has a 30-round magazine. If soldiers armed with both weapons are expected to carry seven magazines into battle as part of their universal basic load, or UBL, soldiers with M4A1 carbines would carry 210 rounds while soldiers armed with the XM7 would have 140 rounds, Trent said at Modern Day Marine. 'Now again, a 70-round difference may not seem significant, but to the soldier in the fight, it absolutely is a difference, not to mention that every magazine added to the XM7 — each 20-round loaded magazine — adds another 1.25 pounds to the soldier's load, meaning that if troops equipped with the XM7 tried to match their old UBLs, they're going to have even more weight being carried,' Trent said. Indeed, during a company live-fire exercise that he observed, a platoon of soldiers armed with XM7s tasked with suppressing an objective while other soldiers could maneuver, burned through their ammunition quickly, Trent said. 'Within 10 minutes, the platoon I observed was almost completely out of ammunition after starting the engagement,' Trent said. 'And by 15 minutes, their ability to produce effective suppression had become almost zero. This is after having taken spare magazines for the XM7 from radio operators, medics, platoon leadership, etc.' When asked about the exercise in which soldiers ran out of ammunition, St. John said Sig Sauer has no opinion about how the Army uses the XM7. 'That's way outside of our realm,' St. John said. 'How the Army trains, how the Army utilizes it, what the Army's tactics, techniques, and procedures are, that's way beyond Sig Sauer's opinion level. We're in the delivering firearms business.' Patterson said the Army has conducted several different exercises that looked at how much ammunition soldiers armed with the XM7 use. 'Following the completion of the exercises, there was enough ammunition remaining to conduct a follow-on action,' Patterson said. Patterson also said there is no doctrine dictating a 'Universal Combat Load.' The Army's Training Publication for infantry platoons and squads says that a platoon's basic load depends on the mission and may be determined by the unit's leader or standard operating procedure. 'The unit basic load includes supplies kept by the platoon for use in combat,' the publication says. 'The quantity of most unit basic load supply items depends on how many days in combat the platoon might have to sustain itself without resupply. For Class V ammunition, the higher commander or [standard operating procedure] specifies the platoon's basic load.' UPDATE 1: 05/06/2025; this story was updated with information from the Army about exercises involving how much ammunition soldiers armed with the XM7 used and who determines how much ammunition platoons carry as part of their unit's basic load. UPDATE 2: 05/06/2025; this story was updated with a statement from Army Capt. Braden Trent provided by a Marine Corps spokesman. Commandant says Marines should have a say in whether they change duty stations Space Force Special Operations Command is on its way Army reverses course on banning fun and games for soldiers in Kuwait A meal card foul-up at Fort Johnson underscores a bigger Army problem Sailor wins $7,500 settlement after his car was towed and auctioned off while deployed
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Yahoo
Why the Army's new XM7 rifle reignited a debate over volume of fire
An Army captain's research paper, written at a Marine Corps professional school, criticized the service's move to a new rifle and reignited a long-standing debate among infantrymen: heavier caliber or more rounds? In 2018, the Army began developing its Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle, the XM7, as a replacement for the M4A1 carbine. Compared to its predecessor, the Sig Sauer-produced XM7 fires a heavier round that the Army says improves 'accuracy, range, signature management, and lethality.' But the larger 6.8mm round comes with a price: the XM7 can only carry 20 rounds in a magazine, while the M4's standard load is 30. Army Capt. Braden Trent argued in a recent academic paper that the lower ammo count was a major flaw. Combat training and marksmanship experts who spoke with Task & Purpose were split. Brig. Gen. Phil Kinniery, commandant for the Army's Infantry School and Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia, was adamant that the new XM7 is an improvement on the firearms used by the Army for 20 years of war in the Middle East. 'From having been in several firefights throughout my career and deployments in Afghanistan and in Iraq, that [6.8mm round] round stops the enemy,' Kinniery told Task & Purpose. 'What we're actually bringing to infantry soldiers or, really, the close combat force across the Army, is something that stops the enemy at one round versus having to shoot multiple rounds at the enemy to get them to stop.' Trent wrote his report as part of a fellowship program at the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Warfare School. He presented his findings at a Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C. April 29, criticizing the Army's new rifle, specifically its capacity for fewer rounds. Though he developed the paper as a student at the Marine school, his work was not sponsored or endorsed by the Army, Marine Corps, or Defense Department, according to his paper. Trent observed a platoon's live-fire exercise at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where elements of the 101st Airborne Division have been testing and carrying the rifle for over a year. Trent watched soldiers run 'almost completely out of ammunition' in 10 minutes while using XM7s to suppress a simulated enemy as fellow platoonmates made tactical maneuvers. By 15 minutes into the exercise, their situation was even more dire, as soldiers had to retrieve spare magazines from radio operators, medics and platoon leaders. The issues raised by Trent represent longstanding disagreements within the infantry on the weapons that soldiers carry, dating as far back as the 1960s, said Thomas McNaugher, who wrote a book on the Army's transition from the M14 to the M16 rifle. 'The rifle may look like a simple technology, but it is the last ditch defense weapon of the average infantry soldier, so it's a personal thing and there are about 1,000 opinions out there about the best size round, the best range,' McNaugher said. 'Changing rifles is often very controversial.' Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and current senior advisor on defense for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington D.C. think tank, said there are two camps of thought: those who prefer to do more with less and using a heavier round, versus others who want a higher volume of fire, lighter recoil and less weight. 'You're never going to sort of bridge that gap because it's baked into the military problem,' Cancian said. 'People who are expert marksmen value the heavier caliber, and people who aren't, don't. The former tend to be more heavily represented in the infantry, of course, but they're particularly represented in rifle teams and snipers and these elite shooters.' An Army marksmanship instructor told Task & Purpose that the service will have to rethink how it teaches soldiers to shoot with the new rifle. 'We need to account for every one of our rounds that we shoot — marksmanship matters,' the instructor said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren't clear to speak to media. Close combat forces are expected to carry out firefights with the enemy, and with that come tactics like suppression, or firing to prevent the enemy from being able to fire back or to protect a friendly squad during maneuvers, according to the Army's ATP 3-21.8 manual for infantry rifle platoons and squads. In his paper, Trent argued that infantry soldiers' suppression tactics could be impacted by needing to reload more often. The consequences of having fewer rounds could be critical in a future fight where the military is preparing for limited logistics and resupply. 'It is unlikely that an infantry company will be provided with constant logistical support,' he wrote. While the XM7 could be useful for suppressing targets in a single engagement, 'it is not likely' that those soldiers would get a timely resupply for a subsequent mission. Army officials said they've run tests in which the rifle is used to both attack an evenly matched opponent and defend against a larger one. An operational assessment of the NGSW 'specifically addressed this concern with a threat ratio of one-to-one in the offensive scenario and three-to-one in the defensive scenario,' according to David Patterson, a spokesperson with Program Executive Office Soldier, which is in charge of the rifle development. 'The resulting [assessment] allowed both a live fire squad attack and counterattack to be conducted with ammunition remaining.' McNaugher investigated the trade-offs when the Army went from the M14's more powerful and accurate 7.62mm round to the M16's smaller and lighter 5.56mm round. The M16, he wrote in a 1979 RAND essay, allowed for more 'spray-like automatic fire' that 'was the product of newer trends in rifle design based on the premise that marksmanship had at best a limited role to play on the battlefield.' From McNaugher's own experience in Vietnam, he said the simple idea of having more or fewer rounds before having to reload was at the forefront of his mind as he trudged through the jungles and worried about being ambushed. He said the issue is 'an existential question for the infantrymen.' 'I was forced to carry the 45-caliber pistol, which was about nine rounds and there had been Browning 9 millimeter pistols at 13 rounds, and I really wished I could have carried that,' he said. 'In the end, it didn't matter. I never got ambushed, but that question of how many rounds you can fire before you have to reload is an important one.' Retired Marine Col. J.D. Williams, an adjunct defense policy researcher with the RAND Corporation, told Task & Purpose in an email that various exercises could lead to 'different conclusions about magazine capacity.' Williams said marksmanship proponents argue that higher magazine capacity 'encourages indiscriminate fire and expends ammunition supplies more rapidly.' Smaller magazines lead to more frequent reloads, which 'can create a lull in fire that the enemy can exploit,' he said. 'It is not surprising that firepower exercises could reach different conclusions about magazine capacity, as the structure of the exercise will impact outcome of the exercise,' Williams added. Kiniery said if suppression is defined as being able to identify a target, use a 'lethal round,' and suppress their movement, then the new rifle does just that. 'The power of this weapon system and the round that we're giving the soldier far exceeds the capability of the 5.56, so no longer can you hide behind a tree,' Kiniery said. 'No longer can you hide behind a wall. When we know you're there, we're going to be able to kill you.' The XM7 has a 20-round capacity compared to the Army's previous M4A1 30-round magazine. Soldiers' current basic combat load means they carry seven magazines into battle for M4A1 carbines, which equates to 210 rounds. Soldiers with the XM7 would have 140 rounds. 'A 70-round difference may not seem significant, but to the soldier in the fight, it absolutely is a difference,' Trent said at Modern Day Marine. To compensate for lower magazine capacity, soldiers could carry more magazines, but that would add weight. An unloaded XM7 weighs 8.18 pounds, while the unloaded M4A1 weighs 6.54 pounds. Add the suppressor to the XM7, and that goes up to 9.84 pounds, a difference of more than three pounds from the older rifle, before loading it with heavier ammunition, according to Trent's paper. The marksmanship instructor told Task & Purpose that soldiers needing to carry a heavier rifle, an optic, a suppressor, and extra ammunition is a concern for large-scale combat operations. As the Army trains soldiers on new concepts for 21st-century combat, where detection by drones and sensing technologies reveal troop locations, soldiers will be expected to physically move locations more often and across greater distances. 'Walking up and down the mountains out of Afghanistan, if I had to carry a full combat load of this and it weighs X amount more, that would suck,' the marksmanship instructor said. 'I'm literally just carrying too much weight.' The issue of how much soldiers carry into battle is something that the Army has long known about and is actively working to improve by getting rid of excess batteries and cables that have accumulated over the years. Kinniery challenged the universal basic load amounts, saying that each formation will carry more or less ammunition, depending on what their commanding officer decides is needed. He also said that the common practice of carrying seven-round magazines could be adjusted. 'One of the first questions I asked when I took the job over is, where did the science come from for having 210 rounds, and where did that get justified?' Kinniery said. 'I have searched for the science on this, and I'm still looking for it.' Army infantry officer calls new XM7 'unfit for use as a modern service rifle' Attempted Fort Leavenworth prison break leaves military inmate tangled on fence When Americans, Germans and POWs fought the SS from the walls of a castle This Army combat medic fought off an active shooter and rendered first aid This 53 aircraft 'elephant walk' has everything you'd need for a war in the Pacific
Washington Post
14-04-2025
- Automotive
- Washington Post
U.S. weapons from Afghan war give Pakistani militants a deadly advantage
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — On Jan. 9, 2018, an M4A1 carbine rifle left the Colt's Manufacturing plant in Connecticut, bound for Afghanistan. Last month, it was recovered in the aftermath of a deadly train hijacking by militants in Pakistan. The banged-up rifle, bearing serial number W1004340 and stamped with the Colt logo, was among billions of dollars' worth of U.S. military equipment provided to Afghan forces, much of which was abandoned after the withdrawal of American troops in 2021.
