Sig Sauer has won a potential 10-year, $4.5 billion contract from the U.S. Army to produce two Next Generation Squad Weapon variants with a common 6.8 millimeter ammunition and fire control system.
The Department of Defense disclosed Thursday the value of the firm-fixed-price contract that covers the production of XM5 NGSW and XM250 NGSW Automatic rifles.
Under the follow-on award, Sig Sauer will also provide spares, accessories and contractor support and the company will receive a $20.4 million initial delivery order to supply ammunition and weapons for testing, the Army said Tuesday.
The rifles will replace the M4/M4A1 carbine and the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. Other U.S. military branches and foreign military sales customers can also procure the new firearms through the same contract.
The Army made the award after a 27-month prototyping and testing period that allowed soldiers to evaluate three weapon prototypes.
Army Times reported that Textron Systems and LoneStar Future Weapons offered the other prototypes that were assessed during the competition’s final phases.
The service said XM5 and XM250 are both lightweight weapons that could mitigate recoil and provide capability improvements in lethality, range and accuracy for close combat forces.
Both weapons will be integrated with the ruggedized XM157 Fire Control system produced by Vortex Optics.
In 2017, Sig Sauer won a contract to replace the Army’s M9 pistol with a new modular handgun system.
