The US Army plans to adopt a new generation squadron weapon

According to the representative of the army, the weapons of the next generation of the US army will be tested by army rangers, green berets and ground forces of special operations, reports space war.

Prototypes NGSW by Sig Sauer Inc., General Dynamics and Textron Systems are in the final stages of soldier evaluation, with official testing of weapons and ammunition scheduled for December.

The final design is expected to be unveiled in 2022, with the weapon expected to enter the field a year later.

"We are passionate supporters of the Army's next-generation 6,8mm weapon," said Col. Joel Babbitt, program executive officer for the Special Operations Forces. "We expect to have next-generation weapons in our formations as soon as we can get them through field testing."

The prototypes use ammunition that is 30 percent lighter than the brass bullets currently in use, and the weapons are intended to replace the M5,6A4 1mm carbine and the M249 automatic weapon, Babbitt said at a special operations forces industry conference earlier this week.

The Army considers the 6,8mm ammunition to be more lethal than the 5,62mm NATO ammunition currently in use.

Babbitt said feedback was positive that the plan to develop a light machine gun using the 6,5 mm cartridge Creedmoor was suspended pending the results of the NGSW tests. Army tests led to the use of the cartridge Creedmoor snipers of special operations instead of 7,62-mm NATO cartridges.

The army recently signed a five-year contract with L3 Harris Technologies for $8,7 million, to supply prototypes for an advanced weapon sighting device for NGSW, an optical device that automatically adjusts to a target based on data from an onboard sensor.