The Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a joint contract to Colt’s Manufacturing and FN America on April 29 to provide M16A4 rifles for foreign military sales to Afghanistan, Grenada, Iraq, Lebanon and Nepal. Estimated completion date is April 28, 2025, and the contract carries a total value of $383,311,941.
FN has been one of the largest suppliers of small arms to the U.S. military. In addition to the M4 and M4A1, the company currently holds contracts for the production of the FN M240 medium machine gun and its variants; the FN MK 46, MK 48, MK 17 and MK 20 SSR for USSOCOM, and various others.
The company is the U.S. subsidiary of Belgium-based FN Herstal, S.A., with manufacturing facilities in Columbia, SC. It provides U.S. military, law enforcement and commercial customers with a complete range of state-of-the-art, groundbreaking solutions developed around small-caliber firearms and associated ammunition under the FN brand name.
Colt’s Manufacturing is one of the world’s leading designers, developers and manufacturers of firearms. The company, based in West Hartford, CT, has continuously supplied military and law enforcement customers in the United States and foreign allies throughout the world for more than 175 years.
Colt’s subsidiary, Colt Canada Corporation, is the Canadian government’s Center of Excellence for Small Arms. It is the Canadian military’s dedicated supplier of the C7 rifle, C8 carbine, C6 and C9 Machine Guns, with recently awarded domestic and international contracts for its C20 Semi-Automatic Intermediate Sniper rifle.
Terms of the firm-fixed-price Foreign Military Sales contract does not state either company’s specific manufacturing volume, but instead indicates they, “…will compete for each order…” up to 215,000 of the rifles, which are chambered in 5.56 NATO and feature a full-length Picatinny rail. The firearms will then be provided to allies of the United States.
