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True Velocity’s Lone Star Future Weapons Withdraws Its NGSW Bid Protests

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Lone Star Future Weapons NGSW RM-277R

It looks like the coast is clear for SIG Sauer to finally go full throttle in its production plans to meet its contractual obligations with the U.S. Army to supply the Next Generation Squad Weapons Systems (NGSW) after Lone Star Future Weapons withdrew its protests on the NGSW bid outcome.

Lone Star Future Weapons, which was acquired by True Velocity, is the other finalist in the NGSW program with the RM-277R bullpup rifle and the RM-277AR machine gun. These were first designed by General Dynamics-OTS as its entries to the NGSW program, the program set to replace the M4 and M249 weapons with a new service rifle and support weapon that can fire the 6.8mm round. True Velocity acquired the project as it uses its 6.8 TVCM cartridge which does not use brass and is lightweight, allowing the soldier to carry more rounds for a mission.

The company filed its protest on the 18th May at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) after SIG Sauer was declared the winner of the NGSW program and then filed another on the 10th of June. The first protest was set to be resolved by the GAO on the 26 August whilst the second filing was set for 19 September which of course further delays the time table of weapons deliveries agreed upon by SIG Sauer and the U.S. Army.

Both protests were then withdrawn on 1 July.


Lone Star Future Weapons NGSW Bid Protest

 

Lone Star Future Weapons NGSW Bid Protest 02

The objections of Lone Star Future Weapons on why it filed these protests remain unclear and we can only just speculate on why it is objecting the awarding to SIG Sauer. But as in any big budget government contracts, it will not be a surprise that the competition will file a protest as these types of contracts run into hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.

As for the RM-277 weapons, True Velocity has teamed up with Beretta in the development of a variant of the RM-277 intended for sale to international allies of the United States. A semi-automatic civilian version is called the “Amicus" which was first called the "Genesis."

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