AAI Lands $2 Million DoD Contract for Lightweight LSAT Telescoped Ammo Project

AAI Lands $2 Million DoD Contract for Lightweight LSAT Telescoped Ammo Project

The LSAT (Lightweight Small Arms Technologies) project is one way the Department of Defense wants to take a load off our soldiers’ backs. It is a new light machine gun that feeds a new type of 5.56mm ammo designed by the AAI Corporation, part of Textron Systems, in cooperation with Department of the Navy’s Office of Naval Research in Arlington, Va. and the Joint Service Small Arms Program Office (JSSAP), located at the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.

The updated LSAT 5.56mm system will be assessed during the Army’s Dismounted Non-Networked Experiment (DNNE), taking place this month at the Maneuver Battle Lab at Fort Benning, Ga. The caseless ammunition effort will focus on improving propellant and ignition formulations in a 5.56mm configuration. The 7.62mm cased-telescoped cartridge will incorporate mature lightweight ammunition technologies successfully demonstrated in the 5.56mm LSAT cartridge.”
 

The downside is that a new type of light machine gun will have to be developed along side the ammo. Fortunately, the current test platform weighs less than any of the light machine guns in service today at just 9.8 pounds, just slightly heavier than most of the rifles in service today, and that’s before taking the ammunition into account.

The LSAT can also operate in semi-automatic mode and be used like a rifle. ”I could see a whole squad carrying it (the LMG),” said Spc. Brandon Smith, who participated in early LSAT trials. ”You would own the battlefield.”

If the LSAT continues to show this level of improvement, it could be a fundamental change in the type of weapons militaries use, not to mention, become machine gunners’ new best friend. It will be interesting to see how the 7.62mm variant performs.

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