For the last five years, rumors of Colt’s death have been (slightly) exaggerated.

From real estate defaults, to bankruptcy, to cancelling civilian sales of AR-style rifles, the company has taken more than a few licks at a time when firearms sales were booming.

The storied brand, once the primary supplier of America’s standard-issue military rifle, has been casting about for wins since it lost the lock on M4 production for US troops in 2009.

A few feeble attempts were met with shrugs from the market and the latest news that the company had basically given up on AR-style rifle production for the civilian market prompted cries of betrayal and sorrow for one of the country’s oldest gunmakers.

But under everybody’s radar at this year’s Shooting, Hunting Outdoor trade show in Las Vegas, Colt quietly announced a revamp of its battle-tested M4 military rifle, introducing the new “CM5” rifle to the shooting public.

At first glance the CM5 (love that next-iteration moniker!) is pretty cool, and incorporates the typical Colt-manufactured solidity that was a hallmark of the company’s military-issued guns.

The most notable differences include a new lower receiver design that has beefed up thickness in the hammer and trigger pin areas to “decrease wear from pin movement over time.”

There are also ambidextrous, no-snag controls and a ton of Magpul furniture to round it out.

Another cool innovation is a direct-mount of the rail to the upper receiver, making for a true “free float” of the barrel for this CM5, the company says.

“The rail’s attachment point to the receiver draws the balance to just in front of the magazine well, giving the carbine an increased ability to get on target and point faster while giving a more stable farther out hold for the support hand without the flex normally associated with rail systems that attach to the barrel,” a Colt rep told GearScout.

For the spec geeks out there, the CM5 tear sheet says this:

• Caliber: 5.56
• Operating System: Direct Gas Impingement
• Barrel: 4150CMV 14.5-inch Heavy profile, 1:7RH 6 grooves
• Receiver Material: Both receivers are 7075-T6 Aluminum, black anodize
• Rail: 13.5” Multi-slot MLOK fore end with true continuous 12 o’clock top rail. 45° vent slots can be fit with MLOK accessories as well for added customization
• Stock: 6 position extension tube. Magpul CTR Stock
• Sights: Magpul MBUS/ MBUS Pro
• Weight: 6.6lbs

The CM5 comes in a few cool configurations, including a “PDW” with 10.3-inch barrel, a 10.5-inch .300 Blackout PDW version and a slick looking sub-compact weapon, or “SCW,” with a telescoping PDW-style stock.

Officials with Colt say the CM5 is primarily intended for export clients, and given the news that Colt won’t make ARs for American consumers, it’s doubtful you’ll see the CM5 on gun store shelves anytime soon.

But for those nostalgic for the brands of yore, there’ll be some comfort seeing the legendary Colt logo out in the field again.

The MG 338, a .338 Norma Magnum machine gun made by Sig Sauer, recently completed safety testing, according to a Wednesday announcement by the weapon-maker.

And soon, Marine special operations forces will put that theory to the test, Sig Sauer told Military Times.

The MG 338 machine gun and the ammunition Sig makes to fire out of the new weapon officially have been designated by the U.S. military as safe for testing, and Sig has delivered a limited number of the machine guns to MARSOC for user evaluation.

The MG 338 is competing with the Lightweight Medium Machine Gun, made by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems for the SOCOM replacement for the M240.

There are no plans yet announced for the machine gun to be used outside of SOCOM.

In a Jan. 20 response from company officials, General Dynamics said its Lightweight Medium Machine Gun received a similar safety sign off in 2015, adding the system is “currently undergoing an evaluation from SOCOM.”

Both the Sig and GD submissions are lighter than the 240L version of the existing 7.62 mm machine gun in use by soldiers, Marines and special operators. Whichever company wins could get an order as early as 2021 for as many as 5,000 machine guns.

The MG 338 weighs 20 pounds and, with a folding stock, is significantly lighter than the current M240 variants.

The GD variant weighs 24 pounds and can defeat Level III body armor at 1,000 meters and incapacitate soft-skinned vehicles with more than four times the terminal effect of the 7.62 mm NATO cartridge, according to the company’s website.

The caliber delivers maximum effective ranges to nearly 2,000 yards and maximum ranges at more than 6,000 yards, according to company data.

The Army is in the midst of testing, evaluating and eventually down-selecting for the Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle and automatic rifle, which aim to replace both the M4 carbine and the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, both chambered in 5.56 mm. The Next Generation Squad Weapon will be chambered in 6.8 mm.

The new .338 caliber for SOCOM machine guns has such range and lethality that SOCOM officials may put in in configurations where only a .50 caliber M2 was used before.

“For the first time in decades the U.S. Military certified a new machine gun, ammunition, and suppressor at the same time, bringing new innovation, portability, and increased lethality to our ground forces, with all components coming from one company,” Ron Cohen, president and CEO of Sig Sauer, said in the statement.

The package also includes a new suppressor that will mitigate sound and flash signature as well as reduce back blast, Sig says.

Military Times reported the original request by SOCOM for the .338 caliber machine gun from the May 2018 annual National Defense Industrial Association Armament Systems Forum.

Experts say the round has a recoil similar to the existing 7.62 mm but packs a punch approaching the .50 caliber round at extended ranges. The .338 NM can penetrate advanced body armor and outranges the 7.62 mm.

The federal posting wants it to weigh 24 pounds unloaded and measure out at 24 inches with a 500-600 rounds per-minute rate of fire.

The weapon must also include both a suppressed and unsuppressed quick-change barrel.

Weapons experts say the advantages of a firearm like the MG 338 comes from the round itself — the .338 Norma Magnum.

The machine gun can also be configured to fire the existing 7.62 mm round, of which the services have plenty in stock.

This story has been updated with a response from General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems.

Dubbed the Next-Generation Squad Weapon program, the Army is asking industry to come up with weapon and ammunition designs that will address some of the shortfalls it has seen with the current M4 and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon carried by most front-line units.

Chambered in 5.56mm, the M4 and SAW has a lethal range of about 300 meters, service officials have said.

The new rifle and automatic rifle must be able to engage targets out to 600 meters, industry insiders say.

“This is a weapon that could defeat any body armor, any planned body armor that we know of in the future,” former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has said. “This is a weapon that can go out at ranges that are unknown today. There is a target acquisition system built into this thing that is unlike anything that exists today. This is a very sophisticated weapon.”

In its announcement on the Federal Business Opportunities website, the Army said it had selected General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, AAI Corporation Textron Systems and Sig Sauer as the three finalists for the program. Previously FN America — which makes many of the Army’s current M4 rifles — and PCP Tactical were being considered for the NGSW program.

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The Army is asking GD, Textron and Sig Sauer each to supply 53 rifles, 43 automatic rifles and 850,000 rounds of ammunition for testing. The contract lasts for eight years, but the prototype testing will last for 27 months — in line with the Army’s stated goal to have the new rifle and machine gun fielded to combat units by 2022.

The service has said the NGSW will not replace all M4s in the Army but will be carried primarily by front-line troops.

The 27-month test program will include “soldier touch point” tests that evaluate “mobility and maneuverability on Army relevant obstacles, and user acceptance scenario testing,” the Army says.

The service will also test the weapon’s controllability, the round’s ballistic effectiveness and a “limited evaluation with Soldiers in the loop to assess the suitability and effectiveness for combat operations.”

“These evaluations may be conducted with multiple squads,” the Army added.

The key to the program is the development of the cartridge itself. The Army has asked industry to develop a round with a 6.8mm bullet. The exact specifications and the threats it would be designed to counter are still secret, but industry officials say the bigger, heavier bullet will reach nearly double the distance with more lethal force than the smaller, 5.56 round.

General Dynamics has been developing a 6.8mm round with a polymer case, helping reduce the weight of extra ammo a soldier might carry employing a rifle with a larger, heavier round.

Textron has spent years developing a so-called “cased-telescoped” round that is even lighter and smaller than the GD option. That round has mostly been a test bed for the Army to explore ways to lighten a soldier’s ammunition load but has been given a new lease on life with the NGSW program.

Sig Sauer — maker of the Army’s new M17 and M18 handgun — has taken a more traditional approach with a 6.8mm round incorporating a blended metal case that is still lighter than an all-brass one.

The Army says it has the option to make a selection during the first 27-month prototype phase and award a final contract. The service says it wants to buy up to 250,000 weapons — a combination of rifles and automatic rifles — and up to 150 million rounds of the new 6.8mm ammunition.

The new D-60 magazine solves the “suppressive fire” conundrum for Marines equipped with the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle by providing the gunner with a 60-round capacity. While the M27 is no M249 SAW and isn’t designed to put 100 rounds on a target, the D-60 gives Marines more options when using a long gun to keep heads down in a fight.

The Corps has been looking for a magazine with a higher capacity than the standard 30-round Magpul polymer magazine since it put the IAR in the infantry’s hands, but these types of “drum mags” have often been prone to malfunction and weren’t durable enough for the rigors of combat.

Magpul D-60 designer Tim Roberts says his company’s drum is “damned close” to the reliability of the Marine-issued GenM3 PMag.

“This is a no-comprimise, double-capacity option,” Roberts said. “It’s designed for missions that are likely to have a long, controlled first engagement situation.”

The idea for an IAR gunner, Roberts says, is that he’d load the M27 with the D-60 to go out on a mission, and carry standard 30-round capacity mags for subsequent reloads.

The key to the D-60’s reliability is a focus on the exact right round stack inside. Magpul has in the past made an art form of its magazines’ internal components — with even government agencies allegedly cribbing their designs. Roberts said the D-60 has more curvature and feeds the rounds into the chamber just right so that the complications so prevalent with older drums can be avoided.

“The D-60 uses a lot of the same parts as the 30-round magazine, and there’s room built into it to grit and dirt won’t jam it up,” Roberts says. The mag is loaded two rounds at a time so that cases won’t get turned around or fouled up inside the magazine as it’s being loaded, Roberts added.

Roberts claimed the Corps has been testing the D-60 on its M27s and that the reviews have been positive. It is unclear when Leathernecks might see a drum magazine in their load out, but Magpul’s D-60 could help move that ball further down the field.

But in the end, it was Exeter, New Hampshire-based Sig Sauer that beat out the ballistic behemoth of Austrian-stalwart Glock for the $580 million contract to replace the Army’s entire stock of Beretta M9 handguns — a firearm that’s been the standard-issued pistol for the entire U.S. military since the mid-1980s.

Through protests and PR missteps, the world wondered what gun Glock had submitted to the Army for testing to win the so-called “Modular Handgun System” program. The notoriously secretive Glock let little slip in the year or so of testing. That left gun nuts wondering what the mystery weapon was that had come up short.

Now, GearScout can finally reveal the handgun Glock put together to vie for soldiers’ last-ditch iron. And the shape that new pistol took may surprise Glock lovers and haters alike — and for very different reasons.

The commercial variant to be released to the public in early January is dubbed the “Glock 19X.” Essentially mating a Glock 19 barrel and slide with a Glock 17 frame, the new 19X is the company’s first “crossover” handgun that melds the best of both designs into a do-it-all platform.

“It’s almost like a [1911] Commander-style situation where you’ve got the shorter barrel with the full-sized grip frame,” said Bob Radecki, Glock’s national sales manager.

The only real difference between the civilian G19X and the Army submission is the lack of external safety on the commercial one. Otherwise, the G19X combines all the technology included in the Glock Gen. 5 series of pistols — with upgraded internal components, a “marksman barrel” and an improved non-corrosive slide finish.

Glock only submitted the G19/17 hybrid for the Modular Handgun System competition, while Sig offered a handgun that could swap out two different frame sizes and barrel/slide combinations to make a full-sized handgun and one more suitable for concealment.

The MHS program resulted in the full-sized M17 handgun and the more compact M18.

Glock officials argue the company followed the terms of the program, which they say specified minimum and maximum sizes and magazine capacities, not an ability to switch out frames, barrels and slides. The G19X, they say, fits within the letter of the law for the MHS.

“The G19X met all the physical and dimensional requirements — maximum and minimum — for both the compact and the standard-sized pistols,” said Glock USA chief Josh Dorsey. “That is why the we went the way we went. Because we had the same capability that answered both sets of requirements in one material solution.”

Glock says the G19X will be available in stores for commercial release in late January.