There are several contenders for a next generation squad weapon and battle rifle in a new version of 6.8mm caliber. From reading various sources, the Army's thought seems to be that the battle rifle version would be issued to all troops that would likely have direct contact with the enemy, such as infantry, etc. There are several competing versions of this system: Sig Sauer, General Dynamics and Textron. Some employ polymer cases. These new 6.8 rounds are designed for increased penetration and lethality and to be able to penetrate future peer body armor at 300ish yards/meters. They are talking of velocities of 3000 feet per second from a 16" barrel and specially constructed rounds to accomplish this.
The version in the video and pictures below is made by Textron, which teamed with HK to design it. It employs cased-telescoped polymer 6.8 ammo and has a push-through feed and ejection system. I will post a video that has better schematics in a follow-up post. To me the design looks overly complex that might be prone to issues on a battlefield in extended combat. But the gun was developed with the feedback of end users and several people in the video are former Spec Ops people in the video--who I assume know much better than me.
One thing that immediately strikes me is that the rifle and SAW versions have their ejection port on the handguard several inches forward of the magwell. To me this looks like a big problem waiting to happen. An ejection port in this location seems more likely to get blocked if the shooter has his support hand close to the magwell, or when shooting the gun from around or behind barriers or rests. In contemporary semiauto designs the ejection port is usually located above and parallel to the magwell. This keeps it away from where a hand might be, and generally away from where it might be blocked by cover or rests. Even with most bullpups the trigger is forward of the ejection port, which keeps the ejection port back where it is less likely to be obstructed.
Take a look at these picture from the video and note how close the shooter's forward hand position is to the ejection port. I could see situations where hand placement might not be ideal and the support hand would block the ejection port causing a malfunction.
I am going to post some pictures and then post the video afterwards
First, the location of the ejection port on the rifle version. Notice how close the support hand is in these pictures. Imagine some type of situation where less than ideal hand placement might block the ejection port. Also consider the increased likelihood of this happening with regular line troops as opposed to more highly trained users.
And of the SAW version:
A 41 second long video:
And a 13 minute long video that details the guns: