Colt Wins $57M Foreign Military Sales Contract for M4 Carbines

Iconic gun maker Colt has won an award to supply M4 carbines to overseas militaries.

Colt M4 Carbines Contract

Under the $57,722,819 contract, Colt will provide up to 10,000 M4 and M4A1 5.56mm carbines to Jordan; Morocco; Afghanistan; Senegal; Tunisia and Pakistan.

This is a firm-fixed-price deal conducted through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s Foreign Military Sales program. The blurb on the official program website describes Foreign Military Sales as a “fundamental tool of U.S. foreign policy.” Here’s a quick primer on the program, via a DoD article:

The Foreign Military Sales program is a form of security assistance authorized by the Arms Export Control Act through which the United States may sell defense articles and services to foreign countries and international organizations. Under the program, the U.S. government and a foreign government enter into a sales agreement called a letter of offer and acceptance. The State Department determines which countries will have programs, and the Defense Department executes the program.

Work on this particular contract will be performed at Colt’s West Hartford, Conn. facility. The estimated completion date is Sept. 20, 2019.

Earlier DoD Contract

On July 13, DoD confirmed that Colt, Daniel Defense, FN and Remington had been picked to compete for a contract to supply “5.56mm North Atlantic Treaty Organization commercial off-the-shelf carbines.” A couple of weeks later, Remington revealed it had been given an award to provide carbines to “key international allies.” It seems logical to assume this recent Colt award is also part of that initial DoD announcement from July.