SIG SAUER shows lighter NGSW Guns

At this year’s annual AUSA show, SIG SAUER displayed versions of the Product Improvement Effort (PIE) guns developed in partnership with the US Army. The goal of the effort is to address Soldier recommendations for the M7 and M250 along with program requirements. SIG refers to the resulting weapons as the M7 Enhanced Rifle and M250 Enhanced LMG. The main concern is the weight of the M7 rifle, and that is where most of the changes are focused. They ended up developing two versions of the PIE M7, a rifle and carbine.

The M7 with 13.5″ barrel currently weight 8.3 lbs dry, without ammo, suppressor, or XM157 FCS. The weights for the two PIE variants are:

1. M7 7.6 lbs
2. M7 Carbine 7.3 lbs

Although most of the weight difference between the M7 and the Carbine variant is due to a shorter 10″ barrel and handguard, there were several other changes:

• The side-folding buttstock has been eliminated, but length remains adjustable.
• The upper receiver and operating system have been refined to eliminate weight.
• Tapered barrel.
• The handguard facilitated access to the barrel change bolts which have been strengthened.

As for the M250 machine gun, the changes have been to accommodate Soldier requirements rather than weight. The new M250 is already lighter than the M249 SAW which it replaces. The changes are:

• Improved gas system
• Improved bipod
• Hinged retainable Handguard to accommodate barrel change
• Quick Change Barrel
• Extended pic rail on feed tray (optimized for XM157 Fire Control System)
• Cross pins for pintle T&E and mag bloc
• Improved lock and interface for buttstock durability
• Improved magazine which holds the top round in place when it has not yet been fed into the weapon.
• Bigger trigger guard opening for gloves

The Army is currently evaluating the PIE variants of NGSW to determine if any of the changes will be incorporated into the program. The XM157 Fire Control System remains a part of the program, and it doesn’t seem to get any lighter for now.