SHARE

It’s official: Sig Sauer’s TANGO6T is the Army’s new rifle optic of choice, the company confirmed on Monday.

Army Contract Command awarded a $77 million contract to Sig Sauer to furnish the service with a Direct View Optic (DVO) back in October, but neither the service nor the company detailed which specific optics would serve as the DVO at the time. 

On Monday, Sig Sauer announced that its TANGO6T optic — the same one currently in use with the Army’s Squad Designated Marksman Rifle (SDMR) and as U.S. Special Operations Command’s Squad-Variable Powered Scope (S-VPS) — was the subject of the contract. 

“This is a three-peat for the TANGO6T as the riflescope continues to prove it will withstand the rigors of U.S. military testing making it the choice for use with our soldiers,” Sig Sauer President and CEO Ron Cohen said in a statement.

Army photo

The DVO would allow soldiers to quickly switch between 1x and 6x magnification in contrast to the fixed magnification standard on the existing Rifle Combat Optic (RCO) that’s currently in use in close combat formations.

Army units currently deploy with a combination of the RCO for targets at roughly 500 meters and the Close Combat Optic (CCO) for targets at 300 meters, as Military.com previously reported

With the DVO, soldiers would be able to target enemy fighters with remarkable accuracy at ranges of up to 600 meters.

“Variable power magnification optics combine the capabilities of the non-magnified optic’s ability to engage close quarter targets with a fixed-magnification optic’s ability to detect, recognize, identify, and precisely engage targets at extended ranges,” according to the DVO solicitation that the Army issued in August 2019.

Soldiers have fielded the RCO since 2007 and Army officials are reportedly ready for a change as the service continues to pursue its modernization priorities.

While the new contract allows for the delivery of new optics over the next five years, it’s currently unclear at this time how many DVOs the service plans on ordering from Sig Sauer. 

Related: This is the US military’s next sniper rifle of choice