Army’s next generation rifle designated M7 amid criticism over performance

The Army has designated the Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle and machine gun have been designated the M7 and M250, signifying they both meet Army performance and safety standards.

The Army has officially designated its newest rifle and automatic rifle the M7 and M250, respectively. The move, which the service touted as a “major program milestone,” comes weeks after the Army’s new rifle came in for some heavy criticism from within its own ranks.

Both weapons have now received their type classification that confirms they met “the Army’s stringent standards for operational performance, safety, and sustainment,” the service announced this week.

But an Army captain has raised serious questions about the Next Generation Squad Rifle — previously known as the XM7 — including whether the weapon’s 20-round magazine provides soldiers with enough ammunition for combat. (The War Zone was the first to report on the criticism, and you can read their deep dive here.)

“The XM7 is a tactically outdated service rifle that would be better classified as a designated marksman rifle, if that,” Army Capt. Braden Trent said during his presentation at the Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C., in late April. “This rifle is a mechanically unsound design that will not hold up to sustained combat on a peer-on-peer conflict.”

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