Description
date of existence: 1984
creator: various
cartridge: 5.56x45mm NATO
wielder: US special forces delta force, david vaughan
In 2009, the U.S. Army took complete ownership of the M4 design.[32] This allowed companies other than Colt to compete with their own M4 designs. The Army planned on fielding the last of its M4 requirement in 2010.[32] In October 2009, Army weapons officials proposed a series of changes to the M4 to Congress. Requested changes included an electronic round counter that records the number of shots fired, a heavier barrel, and possibly replacing the Stoner expanding gas system with a gas piston system.
The benefits of these changes, however, have come under scrutiny from both the military and civilian firearms community.[33] [34] According to a PDF detailing the M4 Carbine improvement plans released by PEO Soldier, the direct impingement system would be replaced only after reviews were done comparing the direct impingement system to commercial gas piston operating system to find out and use the best available operating system in the U.S. Army's improved M4A1.[35]
In September 2010, the Army announced it would buy 12,000 M4A1s from Colt Firearms by the end of 2010, and would order 25,000 more M4A1s by early 2011. The service branch planned to buy 12,000 M4A1 conversion kits in early 2011. In late 2011, the Army bought 65,000 more conversion kits. From there the Army had to decide if it would upgrade all of its M4s.[36] In April 2012, the U.S. Army announced it would begin purchasing over 120,000 M4A1 carbines to start reequipping front line units from the original M4 to the new M4A1 version. The first 24,000 were to be made by Remington Arms Company . Remington was to produce the M4A1s from mid-2013 to mid-2014.[37] After completion of that contract, it was to be between Colt and Remington to produce over 100,000 more M4A1s for the U.S. Army. Because of efforts from Colt to sue the Army to force them not to use Remington to produce M4s, the Army reworked the original solicitation for new M4A1s to avoid legal issues from Colt.[38] On 16 November 2012, Colt's protest of Remington receiving the M4A1 production contract was dismissed.[39] Instead of the contract being re-awarded to Remington, the Army awarded the contract for 120,000 M4A1 carbines worth $77 million to FN Herstal on 22 February 2013.[40] [41] The order was expected to be completed by 2018.[42]