“We do things differently now, keeping soldiers engaged in every step of the process in a variety of soldier touchpoints,” said Rone, quoted by Defense Post. “So we will give them the weapons they need to be more lethal and more survivable on the battlefield.”
It’s not about handing down orders and expecting the rank and file to salute smartly; it’s about ensuring the soldier on the ground’s part of the conversation, ensuring they’ve got what they need to stay lethal and alive out there.
Future Plans and Continued Testing
The brass will get the lowdown on how the NGSW stood up to Alaska’s deep freeze, which will help shape the big decisions about how to roll these weapons out.
And it doesn’t stop with the cold; the Army’s planning to see how these guns do in the kind of heat that’ll cook an egg on the sidewalk, making sure no matter where we’re sent, we’ve got the firepower that won’t quit.
SIG Sauer’s come out ahead in this arms race with their XM5 and XM250, and the Army’s looking to arm up with over 18,000 of these bad boys over the next decade, backed by a hefty $331 million investment.
It’s all part of keeping us on the sharp edge, ready to take on whatever the world throws our way, with the kind of firepower that matches our grit.
Arctic Exercise Prepares Troops for Extreme Conditions
Meanwhile, last Friday, as the calendar flipped to March, around 9,000 soldiers reportedly zipped up their parkas and trudged into the Alaskan wilderness, kicking off the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center 24-02. This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill training exercise; it was the largest of its kind in the Arctic, a frostbitten proving ground for troops ready to face down the cold like never before.
For two solid weeks, these soldiers threw down in a series of 40 training events that ran the gamut from high-stakes combat simulations to mastering the art of staying alive in the kind of cold that bites back. This was the Army’s first grand-scale foray into the deep chill, a chance to test next-gen weapons (including the NGSWs) and see how well snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles could keep them on the move across the frozen landscape.
Major General Brian Eifler was on hand to drive home the point: being ready for anything means being ready for the ice, too. It’s all part of the Army’s bigger picture to stay agile, no matter the terrain or temperature.
This exercise was not simply a test of endurance; it was a global gathering, with troops hailing from five nations, from the forests of Canada to the steppes of Mongolia, all converging on this icy frontier. It underscored the strategic stakes of keeping the Arctic secure and showed just how interconnected our world is when it comes to defending the peace.
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