IMO, there is no guarantee the Army will go through with arming all troops with the new rifle. Plus, there are plenty of other military supply contracts around.
There is pretty much a guarantee that the army will NOT arm all the troops with the M5, since they said they weren't going to, and didn't buy enough to do it. The M5 is only for the "Close Combat Force". (Very roughly, the Close Combat Force are those troops we expect to be within 600M of the enemy as part of their mission)
The current plan, as I understand it, is to keep the M4 for the rest of us, and finally phase out the remaining M16's that are still floating around being used. My unit just got brand spanking factory new M4s as part of this whole weapons upgrade shenanigans. There's no arguing the fact that the M4 is a little long in the tooth however, and lacks some features the Army really wants. (Ambi controls and a folding stock are the big ones there) I'm pretty sure that Sig is marketing this as a replacement for M4's that wear out for the troops in the rear to modernize those guns as well as to make it easier to suppress. The Army is pretty interested in suppressing everyone's weapon.
Failing that Sig will just sell a bunch of them to civilians and police departments
I like the idea of the 7.62x39 version. $2500 is a lot of money. If that street price came in lower, I can almost see trying to get one. If the prices end up being a premium over that like the Virtus, then no.
This is a generational upgrade from the Vertus, and it's Sig, so I'd expect there not to be a price premium, but rather the Vertus will be discontinued soon.
