Colt, FN Compete for M16A4 Contract Orders Worth $383 Million

By Chris Eger

U.S. Marine Corps small arms technician with the Armory, Service Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, inspects an M16A4 rifle at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Calif., Oct. 25, 2016. (Photo: USMC)
The Army Contracting Command on Wednesday announced that two of the country’s biggest M16 makers will compete for slices of a potentially huge military rifle contract.
Colt’s Manufacturing in West Hartford, Connecticut, and FN America in Columbia, South Carolina will vie for each order of an up to $383,311,941 contract to provide new M16A4 rifles for Foreign Military Sales to overseas allies.
The guns will go to Afghanistan, Grenada, Iraq, Lebanon, and Nepal. A bid notice posted last September for the award lists a maximum quantity of 215,000 5.56 NATO rifles along with accessories and magazines.
The FN M16A4. The rifle is the fourth generation of the M16 series (Photos: FN)
SEE DEALS ON FN RIFLES IN STOCK 
While the U.S. Army is currently evaluating their Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) to field an advanced new 6.8mm-caliber platform to replace the current M4 Carbine and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon shortly for front-line units, recent contracts announced by the Pentagon made it clear that the M4 at least will continue to soldier on in U.S.

Source: Guns.com