WASHINGTON: The US military has won a contract worth up to $ 2.7 billion for fire control systems to accompany its Next Generation Squad Weapons program, the service said Friday.

Program Executive Office Soldier awarded the other 10-year production transaction agreement to Sheltered Wings Inc. doing business as Vortex Optics, for the delivery of up to 250,000 XM157 Next Generation Squad Weapons – Fire Control ( NGSW-FC).

The system will be integrated on both the NGSW-Rifle and the NGSW-Automatic Rifle. The fire control system includes a number of advanced technologies to increase the accuracy and lethality of soldiers, according to the statement from PEO Soldier. Integrated technologies are variable magnification optics, engraved backup reticle, laser range finder, ballistic calculator, atmospheric sensor suite, compass, Intra-Soldier Wireless, visible and infrared aiming lasers and overlay. digital display.

The new system will replace the close combat optics, rifle combat optics and machine gun optics for infantry, calvary scouts and combat engineers, the statement said. The minimum contract is $ 20 million.

The Next Generation Squad Weapons program is one of 35 priority military modernization programs and among 24 programs that Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville says are being prototyped by fiscal year 2023.

In 2019, General Mark Milley, then Army Chief of Staff, hailed the team’s new weapon as “a weapon that could defeat any body armor, any planned body armor that we know of. in the future, “according to Army Times. “It’s a weapon that can go out at distances unknown today. There’s a target acquisition system built into this thing that is unlike anything in existence today. It’s a very sophisticated weapon. .