The Army has selected gunmaker Sig Sauer to produce .300 Winchester Magnum ammunition for the service’s bolt-action M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle.
The $10 million deal, announced last week, will see Sig Sauer manufacture the MK 248 MOD 1 and MOD 0 .300 Win Mag currently used by the M2010 ESR.
The deal comes months after Sig Sauer locked down another $10 million contract to furnish the Army with .300 Win Mag ammo, according to Guns.com.
“This award by the U.S. Army is validation of our state-of-the-art manufacturing that has resulted in the highest quality, and most precise, ammunition delivering on-target accuracy for snipers in the field,” Sig Sauer President and CEO Ron Cohen said in a statement.
The M2010 ESR, known as the heavily upgraded version of the the M24 Reconfigured Sniper Weapon System, was first fielded in 2011 to give snipers longer range across the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan.
The associated move from 7.62x51mm to .300 Win Mag ammo helped boost the range of the ESR from the M24’s 800 meters to roughly 1,200 meters, as PEO Soldier explained at the time.
The news comes as Sig Sauer, maker of the Army’s new Modular Handgun System (MHS), is separately working to furnish the service with a 6.8mm cartridge as part of the service’s much-anticipated Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) effort.
“This is a very exciting development for Sig Sauer, and for the rapidly growing Sig Sauer ammunition division, and we are honored to be recognized by the U.S. Army,” Cohen said in his statement.