Colt’s Manufacturing Company of West Hartford, Connecticut just pulled down an eight-figure award from the Department of Defense for new carbines. 

The $12.4 million contract modification, announced by the Pentagon earlier this week, was issued via the U.S. Army Contracting Command in Newark, New Jersey. Covering an unspecified quantity of Colt M4A1 carbines, the work will be performed at the company's Connecticut plant with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2025.

The award comes on the heels of a $57 million U.S. Army contract announced in May, which covered Foreign Military Sales to a host of U.S. allies around the world including Bahrain, Djibouti, Federated States of Micronesia, Hungary, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Macedonia, Marshall Islands, Palau, St. Vincent and Grenadines, and Tunisia. Similarly, another large Army FMS contract was announced the same month for upward of $26 million worth of Colt M4s for Israel.

In September 2019, Colt suspended commercial sales of its AR-15 series so that it could make headway on its outstanding military contracts. It was able to later resume production for retail channels in mid-2020 after catching up on orders for Uncle Sam. 

Meanwhile, the Army is set to move to the new SIG Sauer-produced XM7 and the XM250 Next Generation Squad Weapon systems, which are replacing the M4/M4A1 carbine and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, respectively. 

The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit's Instructor Training Group was recently spotted in Hawaii delivering training on the new NGSW platforms to the 25th Infantry Division. The NGSW has already been sent to the famed 101st Airborne Division as well as the National Guard's 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team. 

Banner image: U.S. Soldiers assigned to the 7th Army Training Command conduct M4A1 qualifications in the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany, May 22, 2024. (U.S. Army photo)