Thursday morning, I joined select journalists who got to experience the Army’s new XM-7 rifle and XM-250 light machine gun first-hand.
The Army hosted us at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) in northeastern Maryland, a base at which Army weapons systems from firearms to tanks have been introduced, tested and vetted for well over a century.
APG will see the process yet again when it embarks on a limited user test of the Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW), the XM-7 rifle and XM-250 automatic rifle (a machine gun referred to as the Squad Automatic Weapon or SAW) starting on October 10th.
The first group to test the new guns – a unit of the 101st Airborne Division – took possession of them on Wednesday. Soldiers will familiarize themselves with the new weapons over the next fortnight before heading to APG to put the guns through squad live-fire exercises, weapons qualifications and qualitative assessment.
While the Army appears on an irreversible course towards obtaining up to 250,000 XM-7s/XM-250s, the soldier feedback from the testing at Aberdeen will be highly important. Will they like it?
My experience wielding, aiming and firing the new guns – which not only introduce a new design but also a new, heavier 6.8mm round with more range and ballistic punch – was impressive. It also indicates that the reviews may be mixed.
The NGSW replaces the rifle and machine guns currently used by the Army’s Close Combat Force (CCF) – the 120,000 soldiers who actually close in on and fight with the enemy, as opposed to the broader force of about 465,000. They currently use the M4A1 Carbine and M249 SAW, introduced in the early 1990s as a lighter, more agile alternative to the Vietnam era M16 with similar punch and the same 5.56mm ammunition as their predecessor.
Colt manufactured the M4/M249 but New Hampshire-based SIG Sauer is producing the new guns. Earlier this year, the company beat a trio of competitors for the $4.7 billion NGSW contract awarded in tandem with a $2.7 billion NGSW-Fire Control contract which went to a team including Vortex Optics and Sheltered Wings.
The XM7 is a modular, piston driven, select fire, magazine fed, suppressed rifle incorporating fully ambidextrous controls and improved ergonomics to enhance user operations. The XM250 is a lightweight, belt-fed, air-cooled, gas-operated, select fire, suppressed light machine gun with similar features including a collapsible buttstock, two position adjustable gas valve, modular-lock Picatinny rail mounting locations, and a recoil mitigation system. It utilizes the same ammunition, suppressor and fire control as the XM7 Rifle.
That ammunition is a more lethal 6.8mm caliber. The Army determined the heavier rounds are needed in a 2017 study, which found that new body armor Russia and China widely made and sold is effective in stopping 5.56-millimeter rounds at medium to long ranges (300–500 yards).
The same year, General Mark Milley, then Army chief of staff, told Congress that body armor as cheap as $250 could stop the 5.56-millimeter rounds fired by the M4 and M249. Such body armor has since spread around the world, recently in use in places like Ukraine.
SIG Sauer developed an innovative thinner, lighter hybrid brass/alloy cartridge to pair with 6.8-millimeter projectiles, reducing overall weight by 30 percent. The new combination yields rounds that weigh about the same as the 5.56mm ammunition the M4/M249 fire. But it packs a much heavier punch, able to lethally pierce body armor close-in and at longer ranges.
Soldiers aim that ammo using the XM-157 fire control system, a 1-8x magnified direct view optic with integrated laser range finder, visible and infrared aiming lasers, digital compass, environmental sensors, ballistic solver, wireless communication, and a digital display overlay. It sits atop the guns’ rails and has an adjustable zoom.
All of the above was ours to sample on a range with targets as close as 50 meters (54 yards) and as far away as 600 meters (656 yards). I started with the XM-7. Pick it up and you immediately notice how substantial it feels compared with the M4 (which I shot on another assignment last Spring). You also notice its weight, particularly its forward weight at the end of the barrel where the suppressor is.
According to the Army, the XM-7 weighs 10.07 pounds. The M4 is 6.4 pounds. You can feel the difference when cycling the gun through a field of movement and soldiers will certainly feel it when carrying the gun all day. Keep in mind that soldiers carry their guns far, far more of the time than they shoot them.
But when they do, the XM-7 will be an awe-producing experience. The power and velocity of the 6.8mm rounds leaving the gun is evident as you squeeze the trigger and they exit the barrel. You feel it in your chest. The recoil is actually smoother, better controlled than that of the A4 but powerful enough to momentarily shift your weight backward. If standing, you need, as always, to have the right body mechanics but you lean more into the XM-7.
The XM-157 sight atop the rail makes shooting accurately comically easy at close to mid ranges. Getting the sight picture right can be tricky (a matter of adjusting the stock and sight position on the rail) but using the zoom and putting the reticle on a target yields hits even for novices. While I missed more than I hit at long distance, I nailed a couple targets at 600 meters. Soldiers who use the guns all the time will do so with relative ease.
The impact on whatever they hit will be fearful. The furthest targets we fired at were backed by cinder blocks. Prior to pulling the triggers ourselves, an Army marksman took aim at the 600m range – first with an M4, then with the XM-7. The M4 pock-marked the blocks but did not penetrate them. The XM-7 rounds went right through, cracking the blocks, leaving large holes and in a couple cases smaller, clean entry and exit points.
The XM-250 literally blows away the M249 from a performance standpoint. Not only do its 6.8mm rounds have more energy but it is lighter (15.39 pounds vs. 17 pounds) than its predecessor. The XM-157 works just as well here and a skilled shooter can hit targets at ranges rumored to be around 2,000 yards (1828 meters). But light machine guns are really about fire suppression, keeping enemy heads down. Firing the XM-250 in full auto mode is an experience you won’t forget. The feeling of power is tremendous yet the recoil is surprisingly smoother than that of the XM-7.
The Army has moved the NGSW program along with rare speed. From getting underway in 2019, it is on the cusp of fielding the weapons four years later. Both guns are in their second iterations even as they begin formally being issued to units of the 101st next March.
Soldier testing and feedback will uncover some issues including toxic gas fumes from the weapons as they fire. Fixes are being engineered for the gas issue but it’s the XM-7’s weight which will likely be a sticking point for users.
I asked Army Lieutenant Colonel Micah Rue, project manager for soldier weapons at the Service’s PEO Soldier program office about how the XM-7 and XM-250 may evolve and if changes might help with the XM-7’s weight.
“We’re focusing on the weight,” he acknowledges. “We’re looking at what we can do within the scope of the contract to reduce the weight of the system. SIG Sauer is on contract to do that.”
LTC Rue says the NGSW team is looking at the possibility of balancing some of the weight of the gun aft and other possibilities without specifying whether they would center on the gun’s suppressor or other architecture. “In three weeks, we have a kickoff with SIG Sauer and we’re going to look at all of that.”
The guns will evolve although exactly how isn’t clear yet. What’s clearer is that their step-forward in capability will drive an evolution in Squad, Company, and Brigade tactics, techniques, and procedures. Army soldier formations will fight the same but differently with the XM-7 and XM-250 – standing off at longer ranges, knocking down targets they could previously only slow and turning what was once effective cover (cinder block walls, plate steel and other obstructions) into mere concealment.
That, I can tell you from my brief experience, is heavy.
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