On April 19, 2022, the U.S. Army awarded SIG Sauer a $20.4M-contract for the Next Generation Squad Weapon. Under the contract, SIG is supplying the Army with the new XM7 rifle and XM250 automatic rifle, both chambered in the new 6.8x51mm hybrid cartridge. The weapons were issued to infantry units including the 101st Airborne Division and received resounding praise. Or did they? On the surface, military public affairs releases and news outlets that cited them shared quotes from soldiers who were impressed with the weapon’s performance. However, these quotes may have been taken out of context.
On April 15, 2024, PEO Soldier posted a video to DVIDS of the 101st conducting live fire training with the NGSW systems. The XM7 and XM250 were equipped with the XM157 Fire Control System, the optic that was selected for the NGSW. In the video, Sgt. Marcus Colston shares his experience in the live fire from instruction to putting rounds down range. Colston’s comments are entirely positive, but reportedly omit the bulk of what he actually said.
“I was recently quoted in multiple publications saying nice things about the Sig XM7 / Vortex XM157, and unfortunately, the 10 minutes worth of critiques I had before saying one nice thing didn’t quite make the cut,” u/vindictivevader wrote in an r/army post. The user, who appears to be Sgt. Colston himself, goes on to explain the issues that he experienced during the live fire and about 2,000 rounds through one XM7. “I have never seen a weapon have so many malfunctions. Namely, failure to extract/eject even when properly cleaned (checked by sig guy) and on adverse gas setting using the GP round.” When new weapons are fielded by the military, product experts are sent by the manufacturer to train the end users. The XM7 is designed to be run with its suppressor and the adverse gas setting allows increased gas into the system to cycle the weapon more violently in case it is dirty.
Speaking of the suppressor, u/vindictivevader wrote that it “works fine, but the locking ring is so stupid. You’re giving infantryman a suppressor that if you twist the suppressor at all after “locking” the ring, it flips the lugs/breaks?? We had two break in the classroom.” He also noted that the blank firing adapter is an “Absolute nightmare for [sensitive item accountability] when you have to remove the suppressor and swap the bolt in the field.” The Marine Corps began widespread fielding of the KAC QDSS NT4 suppressor in 2020. While it is an older design compared to the XM7’s suppressor, the quick attach/detach system uses a simple gate latch.
The primary purpose of the NGSW program was to develop a weapon capable of penetrating the body armor of a near-peer enemy like China. To achieve this performance with a 13-inch barrel, the XM7’s cartridge creates a chamber pressure of 80,000 psi compared to about 61,000 psi from the M855A1 cartridge used in the M4. In order to generate this pressure without blowing out the cartridge case, SIG developed a hybrid case using brass with a steel base. u/vindictivevader wrote that the “two-piece casing blows apart occasionally, stuck casings are common in the XM250.” Ammunition is initially supplied by SIG under the NGSW contract, though the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant was tasked with spooling up production of 6.8x51mm. It is unclear if the ammunition used in the live fire was of SIG or Lake City production.
The XM157 was touted as an advanced digital optic that takes the guesswork out of long-range shots using lasers and computers. However, a digital scope is bound to have teething issues. “The Vortex XM157 is shit. I usually like vortex products, but this one is bad,” u/vindictivevader wrote. “Several ocular focus adjustment rings/diopter adjustments just randomly migrated, the brightest setting is nowhere near bright enough (almost invisible on a sunny day)…Severe zero migration on the lasers.”
The issues experienced with the weapons themselves may be the fault of quality control not keeping up with increased production. u/vindictivevader noted that “half of [the rails] came misaligned from Sig which is further indicative of bad QC.” Still, he went on to comment that these issues are “certainly fixable.” u/vindictivevader’s biggest issue is that troop feedback is not being received. “I just wasn’t seeing a lot of these issues being brought up, either because it’s being ignored, or no one else has put enough rounds through [the rifle] to stress test a bit,” he wrote. “I think it’ll be fine if they fix these issues.” On the topic of round count, u/vindictivevader also reported that the busy shooting schedule resulted in 8 hours of weapons cleaning.
When the M16 was first adopted and fielded in Vietnam, troops had their own issues with the new rifle. However, they were caused by the Army’s interference with the weapon’s design. The original specification of the AR-15 called for the barrel and chamber to be chrome lined. The Army elected to forego the chrome lining to cut costs. As a result, barrels were prone to rusting and cases were often stuck in the chamber and failed to extract. The Army also dictated that a different type of propellant be used in the weapon’s .223 Remington cartridge. This caused an increased chamber pressure at extraction that exasperated the issue. Following the return to the original design, the M16A1 remedied the issues that troops experienced with the original M16. The XM7 may be a victim of the same interference and simply require an A1 revision.