La Beretta is in the final to win the mega order for the production of the new US Army assault rifle. If in January the choice falls on the consortium formed by Beretta, General Dynamics and True Velocity, the Gardone Valtrompia company will take home a deal that can be worth 5 billion dollars. The challenge, as reported yesterday by Repubblica, was launched by the Pentagon: the American military when fighting in face to face with the enemy they are not the best. We need a weapon that gives the army the ability to strike from a safe distance of more than six hundred meters. To the companies that participated in the tender, including the Brescia brand, the Pentagon has supplied the new ammunition to 6,8 millimeters (with which he wants to replace the 5,56 and 7,62 calibers) and, in practice, he has told the manufacturers to build the new Ngsw (next generation squad weapons) around the bullet.
And so the Beretta consortium did: in this way theRm277 A and Ar. The novelty is that this rifle uses the bullpup which allows for a longer barrel without increasing the size of the weapon. The result is what you want and that is that you are able to shoot with more power and precision at a greater distance. Among the features of the new shotgun designed by Beretta there is also the potential deterrence effect: the enemy, seeing the small American soldier of such a rifle, could decide not to attack. In addition, the cartridges are free of heavy metals harmful to the health of soldiers and are lighter than the 30-40 percent compared to brass ones. It will be necessary to wait until at least the beginning of the new year (the first orders will be in April and deliveries at the end of 2023) to see if in the end the Beretta consortium will be able to win over the other challenger in the race, namely Sig Sauer.
About twenty houses had responded to the ban but were eliminated. A couple of weeks ago, the latest proposals from three groups were presented: LoneStar Future Weapon - which includes Beretta, General Dynamics and True Velocity - Sig Sauer and Textron. The latter, however, seems to have given up the tender and so the companies that will try to take the order home are left in two. If Beretta wins for the Brescia-based company - which will produce the rifle in Tennesse - it will be a turning point given the size of the order. In fact, the winner will supply the US military with rifles (which now uses the M4) but will also have to provide ammunition.
But not only. The turnover could be much greater: it goes without saying that once in endowment to the US army many nations will have to - the new bullet could in fact cancel the Nato caliber thus obliging the member countries of the Alliance to consider the NGWS rifle - or will want to buy the new rifle. The collaboration between the Gardone Valtrompia Weapons Factory and the American Army is now a decades-long collaboration. The Beretta M9s were the US military's service pistol for 2017 years and retired in XNUMX (Corriere della Sera).