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Sixor has announced the recent delivery of the Next Generation Squad Weapons System to
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the US Army, consisting of lightweight, high-performance 6.8mm hybrid ammunition, lightweight machine
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guns, rifles and suppressors. For the US Army, the Next Generation Squad Weapons Program targets a family of products
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that includes a rifle and an automatic rifle that integrates an advanced fire control and
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common 6.8mm ammunition. The rifle and the lightweight machine guns are the planned replacement for the weapons
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system for individual soldiers, squads and or platoons. The Next Generation fire control increases the probability of a hit and increases engagement
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time through a variable-powered direct view optic with an integrated rangefinder ballistic
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calculator with a digital display capable of providing an adjusted aim point
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In 2019, Army Recognition interviewed Paul Snyder, a product manager from Sixor, in charge
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of the company's participation to this program. Here is what he told us
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Welcome to AUSA 2019. My name is Paul. I'm with Sixor. So what we have in front of us today are the two submission guns that we have for Next
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Generation Squad Weapons Program, as well as the ammunition. So really what I would like to start with is the ammunition
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The ammunition is what is key to the program. That is the commonality between both platforms
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The MCX Spear is our magazine-fed submission and the MG 6.8 is our belt-fed submission
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So the program really starts out with the projectile. It all comes down to the projectile
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That's the business end. That's what the Army is trying to achieve, is deliver this projectile downrange with
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a known effective rate. So if you look at the U.S. program and the world that's following suit, everyone's about
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enhanced lethality, so standoff distance, overmatch capabilities. So it's all about keeping your military safe at a safe distance to engage an enemy, to
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identify that enemy, and engage them before they become a threat. So we'll start with the MCX Spear
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It's your typical M4 platform. If you look at this from the outside envelope, it really doesn't look much different than
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any other assault rifle that's on the market today. A lot of the things that we had to do to the gun are internal to the weapon, and we left
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the outside of the weapon so that soldiers that already know AR-type platforms can transition
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into this weapon easily. So AR-style controls, AR-style grip, and AR-style stock
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Controls, we go to full auto and then semi. We also incorporated a side charging handle into this weapon system
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Again, it's transitioning infantryman to belt-fed soldiers. Belt-fed soldiers are comfortable with an infantryman gun
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So the side charging handle is extremely nice. It keeps you on target. It keeps your trigger hand free to do the business end of things while you manipulate
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the weapon with your offhand. So this is our machine gun. This is our belt-fed submission
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It feeds from starter belts that you can have in 50 or 100
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And again, it's M-force type controls. It's controls that a soldier's used to using on his infantry weapon that is now transferable
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to a belt-fed weapon. So our magazines load simply like any other magazine
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It would click in. You take your starter belt, you jam it in the feed tray, and you're ready to go to battle
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So here we have our submission for belt-fed machine gun. Again, side charging handle, right
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It detents to the outward position. You charge it when you return, non-reciprocating
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When you return the charging handle to the forward position, you actually get rid of that catch point. So we have a spring detent closed and detented out
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Gives you nice options. We kept the five position extendable stock, right
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Also side folding. We have our 45 degree mounts on this. Again, a requirement that we needed to submit the guns with
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But our iron sights can either mount on these 45 degrees, or they can mount on a continuous
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Picatinny rail. So we can load this with our side folding feed cover
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We can actually load this with the feed cover down. No need to lift the cover to load the weapon
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So if you're in a threat situation, you've fired out your ammo, you needed a change
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you would simply release the magazine, install a new magazine, and jam the belt in and back
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up and running. No need to come up from cover, lift the cover, look, check, sweep links anymore
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