New Army M4, M249 Replacement Contenders Make a Splash

By Chris Eger

General Dynamics-OTS, which is working with True Velocity and Beretta, this showed off their new RM77 platform (left) which fires 6.8mm composite -cased cartridges (right) Photos: Gen Dyn-OTS/True Velocity)
Futuristic new guns competing in the U.S. Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons program were shown to the public this week.
Intended to replace the current standard M4 Carbine and M249 SAW light machine gun, the new NGSW contenders — which use 6.8mm hybrid ammunition– were on hand at the largest land warfare conference and tradeshow in North America: the Association of United States Army annual meeting (AUSA 2019) taking place this week in Washington DC.
While AUSA has lots of interesting new guns, such as Northrop Grumman’s new XM913 50mm Bushmaster Chain Gun and Rheinmetall’s new 130mm/L51 smoothbore tank gun, it was the NGSW candidates that drew crowds.
Military Times’ Gear Scout got up close to the MCX Spear entry from Sig Sauer, which notably features a free-floating reinforced M-LOK handguard, side-charging handle, fully ambidextrous controls, folding buttstock, and suppressor. When it comes to their ultra-light NGSW-AR, proposed to be the successor to the M249, the machine gun has AR-style ergonomics, quick detach magazines, a side-opening feed tray, increased 1913 rail space for night vision

Source: Guns.com