Date Posted: 12-Aug-2024
Author: Ridzwan Rahmat, Singapore
Key points
- The Singapore Army has equipped its active units with the Colt IAR6940E-SG automatic rifle
- Selection of the weapon underscores Singapore's preference for operational pragmatism
A Singapore Army soldier with the Colt IAR6940E-SG. (Singapore Ministry of Defence)
The Singapore Army selected a variant of the Colt Infantry Automatic Rifle 6940 (IAR6940) as its new section automatic weapon (SAW) in 2023. The selection came against a backdrop of shifting operational requirements, Lieutenant Colonel Chan Wen Kai, Head of Plans for the Singapore Army's 9th Singapore Division, said at a media briefing attended by Janes in July 2024.
Selection of the IAR6940 came as a surprise to many observers, given that the Singapore Army was operating the ST Engineering-developed Ultimax 100 for more than 40 years. In any programme to replace the Singapore Army's SAW, it was assumed that the latest iteration of the Ultimax 100 would have been a front-runner in the selection process.
During the media briefing, Lt Col Chan said the Ultimax 100 had served the Singapore Army well. “However, in recent years, we also recognise the increasing prevalence of urban operations and the need to minimise collateral damage especially when our soldiers operate in a complex urban environment. So as such, we thought it's timely for our army to replace our section automatic weapon to meet these new challenges,” Lt Col Chan said.
Selection process
To source contenders, the Singapore Army partnered with the country's military procurement authority, the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), and began an evaluation process to acquire a weapon that would have two primary functions: the ability to provide a suppressive fire for the battlefield and support close-quarter combat in the urban environment.
“And in the process of acquiring this new weapon, it's also opportune for us to incorporate a modular weapon architecture to future-proof it,” Lt Col Chan said. “What this means is that new technologies and accessories should be able to be easily added on in the future to address any challenges or new threats in the future.”
Given these requirements, the Singapore Army and DSTA began a market survey of available options, said Elizabeth Tan Siew Lin, programme manager at DSTA who was selected to oversee the SAW replacement programme.
“From the market surveys, the various weapons were considered, assessed, and evaluated against four key criteria. First, operational effectiveness, covering three areas: ease of use and ergonomics, performance, and safety,” Tan said at the media briefing.
The second key criteria was reliability, while the third was maintenance support. For the fourth criteria, DSTA considered the cost of the weapon, Tan said.
With these four criteria, DSTA and the Singapore Army downselected a list of contenders for firing trials, which were carried out with selected units in the service.
“We worked with the army in designing a test plan for firing trials to assess the suitability of the various options for our relevant mission profiles. Suffice to say, there was strong competition amongst the tender submissions,” Tan said.
“These firing trials also allowed the army to downselect the most suitable accessories such as the vertical foregrip and the bipod to better suit and enhance the capability of our soldiers,” she added.
Tan declined to reveal any names, models, or the number of contenders evaluated during the closed-tender process. She also declined to comment on whether the latest offering from ST Engineering at the time of evaluation, the Ultimax 100 Mk 8, was considered for the requirement. However, it is almost certain that the locally developed weapon was assessed at one point during the process.
Singapore Army's new light machine gun, the IAR6940E-SG, seen here at a media event in July 2024. (Janes/Ridzwan Rahmat)
Customisations
After assessing the shortlisted contenders against key criteria, Colt's IAR6940 was identified as the most suitable option but with several customisations requested as a Singapore-specific variant known as the IAR6940E-SG.
These customisations include the incorporation of double latches into the weapon's charging handle, which is more suitable for both right-handed and left-handed firers.
Another customisation is the incorporation of a bipod, which can be articulated into multiple angles and length combinations to better suit various terrains and landscape features that a firer may be in.
Besides these, the IAR6940E-SG inherits the main characteristics of the IAR6940 line, including cyclic rate of fire of 700–1,000 rds/min and an effective range of 600 m. This is an improvement compared with the Ultimax 100's firing rate of 400–600 rds/min and a maximum effective range of 460 m.
To ensure sustained firing, the IAR6940E-SG is equipped with a heat sink that improves the weapon's cooling capabilities.
The IAR6940E-SG is fed with 5.56 mm rounds via either 30-round magazines or 60-round drums. In addition, the IAR6940E-SG is able to discharge its rounds either in semi-automatic or fully automatic modes – a feature that was not present on the older Ultimax 100.
In Singapore Army service, the IAR6940E-SG is equipped with a multi-purpose laser aiming device (LAD), which has four modes: visible, infrared laser, infrared illuminator, and white-light torch. At the media event, Janes confirmed that this LAD is the Dual Beam Aiming Laser Pistol Light (DBAL-RL) from Steiner Defense.
In addition, the IAR6940E-SG has been fitted with a red dot sight, which Janes identified to be the Trijicon MRO Patrol. The sight is paired with a 3x magnifier.
If the electronics on these visual aids fail, the IAR6940E-SG is equipped with conventional iron sights to assist firers in their aiming.
The weapon has also been incorporated with a built-in deflector to ensure that the expensed cartridges do not hit the faces of left-handed users when they are ejected. “This allows our left-handed soldiers to use the weapon just as effectively now as a right-handed soldier,” Lt Col Chan said.
Singapore Army Colt IAR6940E-SG light machine gun. (Janes/Ridzwan Rahmat)