U.S Army Looking For Next-Gen Weapon

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A big part of military superiority is having both quantity and quality of soldiers, gear and weapons, because of this fact the United States Army has recently invited weapon technologies firms to design and build prototypes for an advanced fire control system that could be integrated into the military’s Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW). Several characteristics that the Army would like to see are facial recognition technology and wind sensing software.

The Army is looking for a system that can increase a soldier’s ability to engage human sized targets 600 meters away while still being able to conduct close quarters battle.

The Army is offering up to two prototyping agreements. Two prototype recipients will be awarded up to $250 million for development and production, with expected production quantities of 200 or more system per month within the first six months of award, and up to 3,350 or more systems a month within three years.

The NGSW program will replace the M249 automatic weapon and the M4/M4A1 carbine. The next generation weapons would need to include characteristics such as ballistics software that can calculate range, wind, atmosphere and ballistics in order to improve accuracy, as well as wireless communication that can transmit fire control data such as range to target.

The weapons need to be compatible with a 6.8 millimeter projectile. The system should also be powered by common batteries and should also have a power on time of no more than one second from off to fully active.

The Army may also consider several other prototype capabilities such as target recognition and tracking software, wind sensing capabilities, and hydrophobic lenses that repel liquids for clearer optics.

Military.com reports that the NGSW will also be designed to work with the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), a program developed by Microsoft that provides a Heads Up Display for the combat soldier via advanced goggles or an eyepiece.

Each prototype submitted will undergo an evaluation period that includes testing and user evaluation over the course of 14 months.