Naval Surface Warfare Center – Crane in Indiana is responsible for the testing and procurement of USSOCOM’s weapons. One of the projects they have been working on for SOCOM is the Suppressor Upper Receiver Group, an upgrade of the M4A1 Lower Receiver Group will allow the Warfighter’s weapon to be optimized for continuous suppressed use.
Earlier this year, the program had its second go around after an initial attempt at identifying a system failed last year. Performance parameters were adjusted from the earlier effort to more accurately reflect what was possible, and vendors submitted three sample SURG candidates each.
Unfortunately during recent testing, sample weapons were incorrectly assembled using parts from different vendor submissions, undermining the integrity of the results.
Last week, Crane contacted vendors and informed them that any offeror which had passed Phase I could resubmit three samples by 26 October in order to continue participation in the solicitation.
The government will then reaccomplish Phase I and then move on to Phases I & III with the resubmitted samples.
Additionally, Crane has outlined measures it will take to prevent future crosspollination of parts between vendor submissions.
Unfortunately, this information has not been made public via Fed Biz Opps as was the case with the original solicitation, which catalogued 11 updates.
Interestingly, United States Army Special Operations Command, the largest SOF component, is not one of the stakeholders for this capability. Hopefully, this program will result in a new Suppressed URG for the requesting warfighting community which includes other SOCOM components. As of now, USASOC plans to stick with its current suppressor capability, provided by SureFire.
