Sgt. Savannah Matelski, Company D, 781st Military Intelligence (MI) Battalion (Cyber), 780th MI Brigade (Cyber), fires her M4A1 carbine rifle at the zero range on day two of the North Region Intelligence & Security Command Best Warrior Competition, May 8. (Steven Stover/US ARMY)

The Department of Defense has announced the purchase of $177,214,218 worth of M4 carbines with orders split equally between Colt and FN America. The orders were made on behalf of the US Army’s Contracting Command.

Sadly, no quantity is stated in the contract award notices, however, both are valued at $88,607,109. With a roughly estimated per carbine cost of $600, that would suggest orders for just short of 300,000 M4s. It seems likely that most of these weapons are destined for the Army rather than foreign military sales, as no buyers have been mentioned in the Department of Defense contract award notices (as previous FMS contract notices have). Additionally, the contracts are handled by Army Contracting Command’s New Jersey department, which normally handles Army, rather than FMS, procurement.

This is the latest in a series of contract awards to the four recently selected preferred manufacturers: Colt, FN, Remington and Daniel Defense. Most recently Colt were awarded a contract worth nearly $60 million for foreign military sales M4 carbine. These latest contracts are scheduled to be completed by September 2020.

Here’s the Department of Defense’s contract award notice for the order placed with Colt on 8th November:

Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC, West Hartford, Connecticut, was awarded an $88,607,109 modification (P00008) to contract W15QKN-15-D-0102 for M4 and M4A1 carbines. Work will be performed in West Hartford, Connecticut, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 25, 2020. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $88,607,109 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, New Jersey, is the contracting activity.

This was followed by a second order placed with FN:

FN America LLC, Columbia, South Carolina, was awarded an $88,607,109 modification (P00009) to contract W15QKN-15-D-0072 for M4 and M4A1 carbines. Work will be performed in Columbia, South Carolina, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 25, 2020. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $88,607,709 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, New Jersey, is the contracting activity.

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