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Army Launches Second Phase in Carbine Selection Effort
May 02, 2012
Military.com|by Matthew Cox
Army weapons officials launched the second phase of their Improved Carbine competition on Wednesday by congratulating select gun makers that still have a chance to unseat the M4 carbine.
So far, Colt Defense LLC, FNH USA, Heckler & Koch, Remington Arms Company and Adcor Defense Inc., confirmed that they received letters from the Army telling them they have been selected to move on to Phase II of the IC.
Army officials confirmed that Phase II letters have been sent out, but said that federal acquisition guidelines prevent the service from commenting on how many companies will advance to Phase II and which firms did not make the cut.
"The Army's intent is to ensure that the competition is as fair as possible," Army spokesman Matthew Bourke said in a written response to a Military.com request.
"The Army does not want to adversely affect the competition in any way. Providing the names of potential offerors; the number of proposals received, and/or any details pertaining to the offerors and/or their proposals has the potential to skew the competition."
The news comes on the heels of the Army awarding an April 20 contract to Remington to make 24,000 M4/M4A1 carbines. By outbidding Colt Defense -- the original maker of the M4 -- Remington may end up being the only winner in what many gun makers have labeled as the Army's well-intentioned but doomed effort to arm soldiers with a better carbine.
The award is part of the M4 Product Improvement Program, an effort that focuses on evaluating commercially available components such as forward rail assembly and barrel that could improve the performance of more than 500,000 M4s already in the inventory.
Despite the progress in the competition, Army leaders recently discussed canceling the competition in light of the dismal forecast for defense spending over the next decade, a source told Military.com.
Phase I of the competition had nothing to do with evaluating test prototypes, but instead focused on weeding out companies that may not have the production capacity to make thousands of weapons per month.
Once Phase II of the carbine competition begins, Army testers will shoot hundreds of thousands of rounds through the test weapons to assess accuracy, reliability and durability. Phase II will end with the award of contracts to three gun makers that will advance to Phase III. The Army will buy more of these weapons out of the contracts to conduct three limited user evaluations.
In the end, the Army will conduct a business-case analysis to see if it is worth buying a new carbine over the improved M4.
Last June, the service invited gun makers to submit proposals for off-the-shelf carbines that could replace the M4, made by Colt Defense LLC. The Army's senior leadership first announced its intention to hold a competition for a new carbine in November 2008 and directed infantry officials at Fort Benning, Ga., to update the requirement for the carbine to reflect the current and future needs of soldiers.
G3Kurz
PS: And Colt has protested the recent M4 recompete production contract to Remington.
May 02, 2012
Military.com|by Matthew Cox
Army weapons officials launched the second phase of their Improved Carbine competition on Wednesday by congratulating select gun makers that still have a chance to unseat the M4 carbine.
So far, Colt Defense LLC, FNH USA, Heckler & Koch, Remington Arms Company and Adcor Defense Inc., confirmed that they received letters from the Army telling them they have been selected to move on to Phase II of the IC.
Army officials confirmed that Phase II letters have been sent out, but said that federal acquisition guidelines prevent the service from commenting on how many companies will advance to Phase II and which firms did not make the cut.
"The Army's intent is to ensure that the competition is as fair as possible," Army spokesman Matthew Bourke said in a written response to a Military.com request.
"The Army does not want to adversely affect the competition in any way. Providing the names of potential offerors; the number of proposals received, and/or any details pertaining to the offerors and/or their proposals has the potential to skew the competition."
The news comes on the heels of the Army awarding an April 20 contract to Remington to make 24,000 M4/M4A1 carbines. By outbidding Colt Defense -- the original maker of the M4 -- Remington may end up being the only winner in what many gun makers have labeled as the Army's well-intentioned but doomed effort to arm soldiers with a better carbine.
The award is part of the M4 Product Improvement Program, an effort that focuses on evaluating commercially available components such as forward rail assembly and barrel that could improve the performance of more than 500,000 M4s already in the inventory.
Despite the progress in the competition, Army leaders recently discussed canceling the competition in light of the dismal forecast for defense spending over the next decade, a source told Military.com.
Phase I of the competition had nothing to do with evaluating test prototypes, but instead focused on weeding out companies that may not have the production capacity to make thousands of weapons per month.
Once Phase II of the carbine competition begins, Army testers will shoot hundreds of thousands of rounds through the test weapons to assess accuracy, reliability and durability. Phase II will end with the award of contracts to three gun makers that will advance to Phase III. The Army will buy more of these weapons out of the contracts to conduct three limited user evaluations.
In the end, the Army will conduct a business-case analysis to see if it is worth buying a new carbine over the improved M4.
Last June, the service invited gun makers to submit proposals for off-the-shelf carbines that could replace the M4, made by Colt Defense LLC. The Army's senior leadership first announced its intention to hold a competition for a new carbine in November 2008 and directed infantry officials at Fort Benning, Ga., to update the requirement for the carbine to reflect the current and future needs of soldiers.
G3Kurz
PS: And Colt has protested the recent M4 recompete production contract to Remington.