You think all of the duty positions within an Infantry Rifle Company will end up carrying this for the foreseeable future?
Here are some other "done deals" that the Army decided were the future you might not have heard of:
SPIW (The AR-15 was a "tolerated stop-gap" until the SPIW was definitely going to be adopted by the Army, after Army Ordnance failed with the M-14.) Army Ordnance hated the AR-15, and the only reason it really got type-classified against Ordnance Board’s wishes was because the USAF ordered it. Army responded with work on the Special Purpose Infantry Weapon, the ultimate dual weapon blaster nobody wants to carry.
The XM148 and later M203 Grenade launchers were what became of SPIW, hung from underneath M16A1s:
To replace the M16A2, the Army launched the
Advanced Combat Rifle in the late 1980s:
The only things adopted from ACR were the ACOG and Elcan optics, with an evolution of the Colt submission’s stock becoming the LMT SOPMOD stock for SOCOM.
Then there was the
XM25 Wunderwaffen:
Then the Hk
XM8 was declared the new US Army modular weapon system:
Then came
LSAT, which showed a lot of promise for lightweight ammo for SAW gunners:
Then came the
7.62 NATO ICSR. Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley (now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), mentioned the need for it. In August of 2017, the Army issued a formal solicitation for 50,000 ICSR rifles chambered in 7.62 NATO.
NGSW was in development along that time.
SIG was announced the winner of both the NGSW Rifle and Automatic Rifle. Vortex was announced the winner for the integrated fire control electro-optical aiming system.
SPIW (Cancelled for being too heavy, cumbersome, imbalanced, issues with the darts)
ACR (Cancelled after not showing much improvement over the M16A2)
XM25 (Cancelled after safety issues with the fusing, which detonated inside the system while a guy was firing it.)
XM8 (Cancelled for not showing enough improvement over M4, M4A1, CQBR.)
LSAT (Cancelled after challenges with scaling the medical grade polymers and dimensional uniformity required for mass production.)
ICSR (Cancelled due to weight, recoil, disinterest, failure to learn lessons from the past with 7.62 NATO.)
NGSW < (We are here right now. It’s totally going forward, a done deal.)
No matter what happens, the XM157 Fire Control System will be used by at least some Snipers and hopefully DMs, just like we got the XM148 and M203 from the SPIW program, ACOGs, Elcans, and SOPMOD stock from the ACR program, and the silly Hk Grenade Launcher from XM8. I also think the XM250 Automatic Rifle is going to be loved by NCOs who used to be SAW gunners. M240s are going to enjoy the increased performance of 6.8x51 barrels and lighter weight of the ammo.
IF this new ammunition works out, the technology will be used for future small arms cartridge configurations. That’s where the real game-changer is.
The heavy piston AR-10 carbine will be rejected by most of the duty positions within a Rifle Company, and the AARs and feedback from soldiers will show this. If they are forced to carry it, most will complain about how they wish they had their M4A1s back. One of the biggest AAR comments will be how soldiers can’t carry enough magazines to sustain the fight as they work through live fire exercises and field problems.