This is a US Army contract for USMC-configured weapons. So is the end user going to be the Army or Marines? Seems odd that the Army would contract for USMC rifles.:
This is interesting.
For one, the Army has plenty of M16A2’s on mothballs. A hell of a lot more than 12,000. It wouldn’t take much to get them to be in the same config as what the Marines are using.
It certainly isn’t above the Army’s capability to field M16A4’s right now without a solicitation.
Army. A USMC purchase would wither go directly to the Corps or through the Department of the Navy, depending on the scale of the contract.
The government doesn’t always make sense. It is also entirely possible that they are procuring them for a foreign entity.
A few years back I inquired as to why M16’s couldn’t simply be converted to M4’s when I was in the USCG. No one could give me a rational explanation. It would be very easy to get complete uppers and drop them onto M16 lowers, but apparently it doesn’t compute at the higher levels.
:stop: but the markings wont match then
…M4s with M16A2 marked lowers :rolleyes:
j/k
When I was in 3rd ID we used mostly M16A4s. Even during our 2005 deployment for OIF 3 most infantry grunts carried the A4 rifles. Only Squad leaders and up had the carbine.
are you implying the U.S. Government wastes money and doesn’t always make rational decisions? For shame:nono:
just like with the 1911’s in the WWI era I believe all small arms contracts go through army materiel command regardless of the end user. This is why the services have a lot of guns marked us amry even in the mc or af or navy
The US Army has been responsible for managing M16 rifle purchases for all DOD branches since 1963. The same is true for the M4 carbine. There are three basic configurations under the current M16 contracts: the M16A3 for the US Navy, the M16A4 for the USMC, and M16A4 for FMS clients like Iraq and Afghanistan. This solicitation does not represent a new contract, instead it will be an add-on to one of the multi-year contracts awarded in FY08 to FN Manufacturing, Colt, and Sabre Defense.