The United States Army’s new XM7 rifle was designed to provide the warfighter with a harder-hitting weapon. 

Instead, it might be the service’s latest misfire!

While speaking at the recent Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C., Captain Braden Trent, U.S. Army, presented evidence gathered on the XM7 and offered the very blunt conclusion that it is “unfit for use as a modern service rifle.”

The U.S. Army awarded Sig Sauer a $4.5 million contract in April 2022 after it was selected as the winner of the Next Generation Squad Weapon competition. The competition called for a modular firearms system that would include a replacement for the legacy M4 carbine and the M249 light machine gun. The XM7 was based on the Sig Sauer line of MCX and was also an evolution of the AR-15/M16 rifles. 

Thus, the XM7 is a “cousin” of sorts to the MCX, albeit distant.

That may have given it a slight advantage over the competing offerings in the Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) program, with the key differences in the operation. Instead of the direct impingement system found in the AR-15/M16, the MCX utilized a gas piston operating mechanism. 

The key benefit is improved reliability, but it comes with a tradeoff in weight, with the gas piston being heavier. The XM7 offered greater range and stopping power, requirements that were born of experiences in Afghanistan during the Global War on Terror (GWOT).

Both the XM7 rifle and XM250 automatic rifle were to be chambered for the newly developed

© The National Interest