laststandonzombieisland

The only Arctic, Airborne, Recon cavalry squadron in the U.S. Army has been busy trying out the service’s new Next Generation Squad Weapon systems in some of the worst weather Alaska can offer.

The 1st Squadron (Airborne) of the 40th Cavalry Regiment, working with Fort Greely’s Cold Regions Test Center in one of the coldest parts of Alaska, has been putting the NGSW platform through its paces. The program includes SIG Sauer’s XM-7 rifle, which will fill the role currently held by the M4 Carbine series, the SIG XM250 light machine gun slated to replace the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, and the Vortex-produced M157 Fire Control optics system used on both platforms.

“Extreme environmental testing is critical to ensuring reliable systems,” noted Col. Jason Bohannon, the Army’s Project Manager Soldier Lethality on Feb. 9.

Meanwhile, a social media page for the 1st Squadron-40th Cav noted that they have been experiencing “sub-Arctic conditions in the vicinity of Ft Greely where temperatures haven’t topped above -25 degrees.”

The 40th has a long military history of making it work under terrible conditions. Based in its current form in Alaska since 2005– from where they deployed to Iraq (Southern Baghdad) once and Afghanistan twice (Paktya and Khost Provinces)– it draws its lineage from the old 40th Tank Battalion which entered combat on August 15 1944 fighting across northern France into Belgium where it made a significant contribution to the defeat of German forces at St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge then drove into Germany linking up with the Soviets on the Baltic coast.