SIG Sauer's SIG516: Expect the Unexpected
SIG Sauer combined European engineering with the exceedingly popular AR platform.
By Michael Humphries
01/15/2010
A significant number of American shooters consider SIG Sauer to be primarily a handgun manufacturer. This is in direct contradiction to the fact that the company’s roots in Europe are tied to some extremely prolific and respected military and law enforcement rifle designs. SIG Sauer has been making bold moves in the past few years to remedy this misconception. In particular, the company’s SIG556 series of 5.56x45 mm NATO rifles, which combine elements of the Swiss SIG SG 550 rifle with the AR-15, offered U.S. shooters a chance to own a rifle patterned much like the revered original Swiss design. In addition, the company also offers a line of highly regarded, long-range precision rifles based on proven Blaser and Sauer designs, further enhancing the company’s credentials as a top-tier rifle manufacturer.
The overall thrust of the offerings from the company, however, was arguably still somewhat Eurocentric. It was obvious SIG Sauer made an intelligent move to build on the strengths the international company could bring to bear through its subsidiaries. But, there proved to be a latent interest in tapping into a design more firmly rooted here in the United States: the AR-15 series of rifles.
A desire to cater more directly to the AR-15 market actually makes a great deal of sense considering the nature of SIG Sauer. The company’s practices present an unusual case study of modern business. While many companies in this country are actively outsourcing work to the rest of the world, SIG Sauer is actually bringing it into the country.
During the past four years, the SIG Sauer facility in Exeter, N.H., has grown by leaps and bounds, adding employees, machinery and manufacturing space. And this growth has gone hand-in-hand with the company’s expansion beyond its traditional niche with handguns and into rifles.
A large part of SIG Sauer’s business revolves around military and law enforcement contracts for its successful handgun designs. Nonetheless, the company recognized a strong desire for package deals with many of these customers. Often, when agencies contracted with SIG Sauer for handguns, they also showed interest in buying rifles.
“We have been very successful with the SIG556 platform in this respect,” SIG Sauer President and Chief Executive Officer Ron Cohen said recently. “However, we recognized that the AR-15/M16 family of rifles was clearly the dominant design around the world.” Many law enforcement agencies have a lengthy background with the AR design, Cohen explained, and SIG Sauer recognized that there was a strong interest for an improved version of the platform. The answer is the new semi-automatic SIG516 series of .223 Rem./5.56x45 mm NATO rifles.
A Better Mousetrap?
“The SIG516 not only gave us a chance to tap into this broad market, but it also offered SIG Sauer a chance to bring its own unique approach to firearm design and manufacture to this popular platform,” Cohen said. “It allowed us to take an established design and make it more robust and hardy while improving on its weak points.”
So what exactly does the new SIG516 series bring to the table? Despite the AR’s broad-based acceptance and its many positive attributes, the company recognized that the basic platform could use some attention in regards to its reliability in harsh environments. Although the standard AR can be a pleasure to shoot because of its excellent ergonomics and extremely good accuracy, its direct-impingement gas system is a point of contention for many. As a result, the SIG516 dispenses with the direct-impingement system and incorporates a proprietary gas-piston operating system designed to offer sound, reliable operation in even the most severe environments.
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