FN awarded $84.6 million machine gun contract

The M240 by FN America and used by the U.S. military. (Photo: FN America)

The M240 by FN America and used by the U.S. military. (Photo: FN America)

The U.S. Army awarded FN America a contract to build M240 machine guns and parts for four 1-year ordering periods with a total value not to exceed $84.6 million.

The M240 is a medium machine gun chambered for 7.62mm NATO and serves in numerous platforms and variants for the U.S. military. The contract — approved Dec. 9 but announced Jan. 5 — covers models B, C, D and H.

FN has produced more than two million firearms for the U.S. military since 1989 at its Columbia, South Carolina, facility, said FN’s president and chief executive officer Mark Cherpes.

“We are extremely proud of the high quality and reliable firearms we build for our service men and women and look forward to continuing this tradition,” he said.

In addition to the M240 family of machine guns, FN also produces M4/M4A1 carbines, M16 rifles, MK19 grenade machine guns, M249 SAWs and the MK46 and MK48 machine guns.

On the consumer side, FN announced last week an expansion of products available to civilians with the more variants of the popular FN Compact series of pistols and five new models of the FN 15 series of rifles.

Also, the M240 contract is one of the first big announcements under the company’s new name, FN America. Before October 2014, the company was split into two entities: a manufacturing facility called FNH in South Carolina, and an administration side called FN USA in Virginia.

FN America is subsidiary of FN Herstal S.A. in Herstal, Belgium, which is owned by The Herstal Group, also in Belgium, and the sistered company to Browning North America in Morgan, Utah.

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