U.S. Army places order for 24,000 M4 carbines with Remington

[Supra GTR]

Army orders M4s from Remington.

It was bound to happen. The U.S. Army has been buying M4 carbines exclusively from Colt since 2002 (though the first Colt M4 contract was awarded in 1996). But, as of 18:20 today, Remington Arms has been added to that dance card. The question is whether Colt retained a portion of the contract. It appears they haven’t, but it’s hard to tell from the published documents.

According to the Department of the Army’s Chief of Legislative Liaison, the Army today executed a delivery order on an existing contract to buy 24,000 M4/M4A1s worth $16,163,252.07. The order comes as line 001 on an IDIQ contract for up to 120,000 carbines worth $83,924,089.00, though U.S. Army Contracting Command lists the “Max Potential Contract Value $180,000,000.00.” The rifles will be made at Remington’s factory in Ilion, N.Y., from the Colt technical data package and, by my math, will cost about $673 a copy. That’s a hell of a group buy price.

This news is just hours old so Remington, and likely Colt, are still spinning up the PR machines. I spoke with two Remington Arms employees who confirmed the contract award but hadn’t been cleared to make a statement on behalf of the company.

I haven’t heard from Colt, yet. But I expect them to be fairly quiet until the protest period has ended. I did speak with one industry executive Saturday morning that suggested Colt is already close to it’s production capacity. He mentioned the 2009 M240 and M249 contract awards as major contributing factors.

Any of you that were about to buy milspec parts for your guns, now’s a good time. I’m sure Remington is about to go on an OEM parts buying binge. While they will likely forge their own upper receivers, lowers receivers, bolt, bolt carrier and barrels, they will have to subcontract for small parts such as ejectors, extractors, fire control groups, springs, pins just as Colt does.

[FYRARMS]

Yep, heard about this the other day. Remington is just SO big. They can handle the production at lower costs. I'm really not too surprised. I am surprised that Colt is making M240s and M249s, though. I thought FN could keep up with production demands.

[G]

I thought the mil was going away from the M249?

[sc-t]

Well it was bound to happen. Colt is just lucky they didn't loose the contract all together since they were having horrible QAQC problems. And FN is to small of a company to soley produce 240/249's several other nations use then such as Canada and the other NATO countries