Hard to make the claim that MCX was choosen for the SURG due to political reasons when it was the only rifle that could meet the reliability requirements just to become qualified for consideration. And those requirements were so demanding that SOCOM had to hold the SURG program trails 3 times because until the MCX no one could meet them.
"These stringent requirements, combining suppression, reliability, accuracy service life, and operator protection were very challenging for industry. It took three tries at bat for the SURG program to finally select a system. In the two earlier attempts, none of the systems could meet all of the program’s objectives. Kudos to SIG for putting together a winning system."
https://soldiersystems.net/2018/08/...ppressed-upper-receiver-group-from-sig-sauer/
And those requirements are pretty cut and dry some of if not the the most rigorous reliability and accuracy standards that a US Military carbine has been required to pass ever.
The Sig was required to run for 20,000 rounds suppressed with 0 parts failures which is reliability standard that no US military carbine has been required to pass.
The MCX was also required when firing MK318 MOD1 for 5 groups of 10 rounds each suppressed, has to average over the 5 groups no more than 1.50 MOA Extreme Spread (ES) beyond the ammunition Lot Acceptance Test (LAT) average ES at 300 yards. Also, it has to maintain a maximum ES Average of 1.50 MOA over LAT using MK318 MOD0 / MOD1 ammunition from 0 to 10,000 rounds fired. Which is is a more stringent accuracy requirement than I've seen on a US military carbine ever.
This stuff is again cut and dry and the MCX's capabilities being vetted by SOCOM unless you can show how another rifle has been proven to the same extent to be more accurate more reliable and more modular then it's not debatable that the MCX is indeed the better rifle.
www.ar15.com
