The Pentagon last week announced that the CZ-owned Colt’s Manufacturing Company in West Hartford, Connecticut, has been awarded a five-year barrel contract.
The announcement from the Defense Logistics Agency in Columbus, Ohio, details the contract for carbine barrels worth a maximum of $9,327,600. The award was sole-sourced and is for the U.S. Army, with a completion date of June 28, 2028.
Colt has long been one of the primary contractors for the U.S. military, of first the M16 and later the M4 platform, with the initial award from the U.S. Air Force being issued in May 1962 for the purchase of Colt Model 01 rifles, the same year 1,000 guns were sent to Vietnam as part of Project Agile trials. Since then, more than 8 million M16s and M4s have been ordered by the U.S. military for both domestic use and by allied forces, while contractors have varied over time to include guns made by H&R and FN.
Related Factory Tour: Go Behind the Scenes to See How FN Makes M4 Carbines for the U.S. Army
Meanwhile, in 2020, the U.S. Army announced the award of a 10-year firm-fixed-price follow-on production contract to New Hampshire-based SIG Sauer to produce the Next Generation Squad Weapon program's small arms, ammunition, and suppressors. The NGSW initiative includes the planned M7 rifle to fill the role currently held by the M4 carbine series, while the SIG M250 light machine gun will replace the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon.
The Army's objectives for the NGSW program, at least as it currently stands, includes 111,428 M7s and 13,334 M250s, with the plan to use the new weapons to equip the close combat force – identified as infantrymen, cavalry scouts, combat engineers, combat medics, special operations troops, and forward observers.
However, that doesn't mean legacy weapons such as the M4 will just fade away. Army spokesmen in 2022 said other units and specialties will continue to use legacy small arms. "For example, the company supply sergeant will continue to carry an M4 or another weapon, not the Next-Gen Weapon."
Banner image: Colt M4 series carbines and rifles on display. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
