LSAT Rifle

The LSAT rifle, of the LSAT (Lightweight Small Arms Technologies) program, is a developmental assault rifle. Design began in 2008, four years after the beginning of the LSAT program. Like the LSAT LMG, the rifle is designed to be significantly lighter than existing designs, and is designed to fire lighter ammunition. Like the rest of the program, the weapon extensively uses parallel development. It has designs for polymer-cased ammunition and caseless ammunition, and designs using spring-loading magazines and weapon-powered magazines. This parallel development reduces the risk of the program failing. Computer simulation and modelling, particularly of the LMG, is being used for all components of the program, including the rifle. This reduces both time and expenditure for prototyping and testing. The other program components use a 'spiral development' approach, whereby the product is rolled out in stages or 'spirals', each stage producing a new version that is an improvement on those from previous spirals; the rifle shall likely use the same approach. The weapon and the program are closely connected to the Future Force Warrior concept, with aims to integrate electronics and computerized optics, and aims to increase the mobility of soldiers. The weapon is also intended to improve on reliability and ease of maintenance.