Way back in June of last year the US Army issued a pre-solicitation for the purchase of an additional 70,000-100,000 M4A1 carbines. The idea was that it was going to be a free-for-all and anybody, including incumbent Colt Defense could bid. The actual solicitation hit the street in August. Now, there’s an award, but it was issued at 6:20 PM and the announcement was under the innocuous title of, “GUNS, THROUGH 30MM” which is the Federal Supply Class (10) they weapons are categorized under. Too late for the daily DoD Contract award announcements. Odd? Absolutely, considering the size and commodity involved.
Here’s the content of the award notice –
Notice Type:
Award Notice
Contract Award Date:
April 20, 2012
Contract Award Number:
W56HZV12D00560001
Contract Award Dollar Amount:
$16,163,252.07
Contract Line Item Number:
0004AB
Contractor Awardee:
REMINGTON ARMS COMPANY, LLC,14 HOEFLER AVE,ILION,NY,13357-1816
Synopsis:
Added: Apr 20, 2012 6:20 pm
No Description Provided
Contracting Office Address:
U.S. ARMY CONTRACTING COMMAND, WARREN, MICHIGAN 48397-5000
There’s another award (W56HZV12D0056) to Remington Arms Company for a “Max Potential Contract Value $180,000,000.00” for the generic “GUNS, THROUGH 30MM” issued about an hour before the award mentioned above. Remember, that $180 Million is a contract ceiling and allows the Government to purchase their full requirement over multiple years without competing multiple contracts.
Notice the contract numbers. The base contract is W56HZV12D0056. The additional 0001 would denote an initial order meaning there will be more to come.
These carbines will be produced in accordance with the Colt Technical Data Package. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. In the mid-80s FN began producing the M16A2. However, access to the Colt TDP will certainly give Remington a leg up. Hopefully, these Remington guns will be better than the early FN M16s which were of low quality.
