The United States Army rolled out the M7 rifle by Sig Sauer, and was immediately met with problems. Troops were less than fond of the new weapon, and in a story all too familiar, Sig said there wasn't a problem.
Then they built a new rifle that, conveniently, is supposed to counter all of the previous problems.
Now, the M8 is ready to start shipping to the Army units.
On the factory floor at gun maker Sig Sauer’s headquarters, giant shipping pallets of the brand-new M8 Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle sit shrink-wrapped on shelves, ready for dispatch to soldiers.
Fielding of the M8 carbine, which appears set to replace Sig Sauer’s M7 as the Army’s standard rifle less than three years after the M7’s initial fielding began, will begin in December with some units at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, company executives confirmed to Military Times Monday.
The NGSW new weapons rollout also includes Sig’s M250 machine gun, which will replace the aging M249 Squad Automatic Weapon and is expected to reach troops in the first half of next year, said Dave Buehler, the company’s vice president of manufacturing.
Both weapons share an ammunition caliber: the 6.8×51mm Common Cartridge developed by Sig Sauer with a hybrid design intended to withstand high chamber pressure.
The M7 stumbled out of the gate, generating complaints from soldiers about its unwieldy weight and length and undue wear they said the high-pressure rounds were putting on components, including barrels and suppressors.
Sig pushed back against the complaints, but as we can see, they apparently thought something was up, so they rolled out a new weapon.
Honestly, how is it that Sig keeps getting these Army contracts, only for there to be problems with the weapons they're providing. While the Department of War isn't reporting quite the same issues that civilian law enforcement agencies are, the M18 — known to us as the P320 — has been surrounded in controversy, and the M7 had its issues, too. Bad enough for Sig to redesign the weapon significantly enough for it to warrant a new designation.
What the hell are we going to find out about this M250 rifle?
Hopefully nothing, obviously. I don't like that Sig is having these kinds of issues, but I really don't like it that our troops are being issued weapons that have some...concerns surrounding them. Luckily, if this is the answer, one would assume Sig did their homework to make sure these weapons, at least, are good to go.
Then again, one would have thought so last time, too.
What's interesting to me about this is that these aren't vastly different rifles from what my dad was issued back in Vietnam. It's still an AR-style rifle, just now chambered in a different round that has supposedly better armor penetration than the 5.56 had. How many of our current crop of enemies has body armor is a question for debate, but if it'll do the job on those without the armor, then better safe than sorry.
And no, I'm not dogging on the DOW for this. I'm not trusting that nothing weird took place, mind you, but there are plenty of reasons to upgrade a rifle, and it's downright fascinating that the weapon that was considered such a problem when Dad was in the bush is essentially the same platform we're using today.
Talk about getting the bugs worked out of it.
Let's just hope that Sig has the bugs worked out of this one, too. Seriously, my previous admiration of the company has taken a massive hit over the last few years, and while I know some of you aren't blinking at the reported issues, I sure as hell am.
