It’s official: US Army’s improved M8 rifle to begin fielding in December

NEWINGTON, N.H. – On the factory floor at gun maker Sig Sauer’s headquarters, giant shipping pallets of the brand-new M8 Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle sit shrink-wrapped on shelves, ready for dispatch to soldiers. Fielding of the M8 carbine, which appears set to replace Sig Sauer’s M7 as the Army’s standard rifle less than three years after the M7’s initial fielding began, will begin in December with some units at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, company executives confirmed to Military Times Monday. The NGSW new weapons rollout also includes Sig’s M250 machine gun, which will replace the…