By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com June 2, 2010 In their ongoing efforts to upgrade/improve and/or replace the Colt SOPMOD M4/M4A1 Carbine with the “Next Carbine”, the U.S. Army Contracting Command just issued a sources sought notice/solicitation (Solicitation Number: W15QKN-10-X-0455) on May 27, 2010 requesting information on potential weapon capabilities for an “Individual Carbine” as part of a “market …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com On January 22, 2010, during the last day of SHOT Show 2010, coincidentally, the U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC), Joint Munitions and Lethality (JM&L) Contracting Center issued a Sources Sought Notice/Solicitation for “market survey” for a drop-in Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS)/Non-Developmental Item (NDI) “modification kit” (i.e. performance upgrade kit) for “improvements to the M4 …

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By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com February 8, 2011 Updated on 1/12/11. About a week ago, on January 31, 2011, the U.S. Army issued a Draft Request For Proposal (RFP) W15QKN-11-R-F003 for an “Individual Carbine” to supposedly replace the Colt M4/M4A1 Carbine, a direct-gas-impingement (DGI) AR-15 carbine configured to U.S. military specifications. Of course, the Army looking for …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com December 14, 2010 Last Thursday, December 9, 2010, the U.S. Army Product Manager, Soldier Clothing and Individual Equipment (PM-SCIE) and Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) conducted the Army Camouflage Improvement Industry Day at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Adelphi, Maryland as part of of Phase IV of the Army’s “Family of camo Patterns” …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com November 1, 2009 DefenseReview recently mentioned the M240L 7.62mm Medium Machine Gun (Light) in

By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com October 9, 2008 On August 22, 2008, the U.S. Army issued a sources sought notice for an "Improved Carbine and Subcompact Individual Weapon System" (Solicitation #: W52H0908CARBINESV) to replace the Colt M4 Carbine, since Colt Defense’s M4 Carbine sole source contract will end in 2009. On September 11, 2008, I got a …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com December 17, 2007 This article was updated on 12/19/07 and 5/15/09. Ya’ know that Colt M4 Carbine vs. Heckler & Koch (HK) HK416 vs. FN MK16 SCAR-Light (SCAR-L) vs. HK XM8 LAR extreme dust conditions reliability test that the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Center (ATEC) at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Md. was conducting? …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com The following Sources Sought Notice looks like it’s essentially the same solicitation as that covered in the previous article, just in alternate form (a previous version, if you will): "General Information Document Type: Sources Sought Notice Solicitation Number: W15QKN-05-X-0427 Posted Date: Nov 05, 2004 Original Response Date: Dec 07, 2004 Current Response Date: Dec 07, 2004 …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com US Army ARDEC, AMSTA-AR-PC, and Picatinny Arsenal (NJ) have just issued a Sources Sought Notice for a "Non-Developmental multi- configurable 5.56mm modular weapon system". It’s possible that this notice is specifically designed to save/salvage the HK XM8 development program, in which the US Army TACOM-ARDEC and Picatinny Arsenal already have a significant time and money investment. …