July 8th, 2009
As of July 1, the Army has taken control of the design rights to the M4 carbine from its sole maker, Colt Defense LLC. Translation: With an uncertain budget looming, the service is free to give other gun companies a crack at a carbine contract.
The transition of ownership of the M4 technical data package marks the end of an era and Colt’s exclusive status as the only manufacturer of the M4 for the U.S. military for the past 15 years.
In late November, Army senior leadership announced the service’s intent to open a competition for a new carbine this fall in preparation for the June 30 expiration date of Colt’s hold on the M4 licensing agreement.
The Army is slated to finish fielding the last of its 473,000 M4 requirement some time next year.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
FN made M-16’s in our arms lockers were much better, tighter weapons than the equivalent Colt’s.
July 8th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
[...] Colt will no longer have an exclusive deal, and other manufacturers will be able to sell firearms to the military. I wonder if this will end up making Colt more interested in the civilian market than it currently is. [...]
July 8th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
If they make it in 6.5 Grendal, I’m interested.
July 8th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I read the “translation” above but I’m not too proud to say I still don’t understand the significance.
It’s confusing to me, because it seems every 2 or 3 years DoD says something about a new rifle competition and everyone gets all spooled up and alot of companies make some pretty interesting weapons and they just buy more M16s anyway.
OK, this one’s carbine length, this year has different handguards, this one has rails, that one has a titanium selector switch or whatever, but to a great extent it’s the same weapon in 2009 as it was in 1969.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
It is a bit of an exaggeration to say the Army has control of the TDP. As of July 1, the Army merely gained limited license rights to use the M4 TDP to second source production, as an extension of the 1967 licensing agreement for the M16. Until the end of calender year 2050, the Army will have to pay 5% in royalties to Colt for every M4 procured from second sources. The TDP will remain Colt proprietary data, and any second source M4 contractor will no doubt be required to sign non-disclosure agreements just as they do for the M16.
This is not the end of Colt’s current .mil contract for the M4. The current contract allows new delivery orders to be placed to the end of calender year 2010. As it now stands, the current delivery orders stretch production out to Spring 2011.
July 8th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Wonder what Joe Lieberman will have to say about this.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Hopefully the DoD will finally ditch the M4 for something better like the Bushmaster ACR or at the very least the HK416.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:12 am
[...] is also a discussion about this at Gun Pundit Related PostsM4 may get tougher barrel, better magsM4 barrel fell offUS Army buying .300 Winchester [...]
July 9th, 2009 at 9:41 am
[...] Gunpundit says the army as taken over the rights to it. Guess that means they can get suppliers other than Colt. [...]
July 9th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
One correction: Another source claims that the US Army will only have to pay royalties until December 24, 2037. That is still a mighty long time, and even after that the Army will only be able to second source for governmental purposes.
The companies receiving second source M4 contracts will only be able to use the Colt M4 TDP to supply the US government. Whether or not the US government can then turn around and export these carbines is a matter of the 1967 license agreement and subsequent amendments. Certainly, FN-made M16 are being contracted by the US Army on behalf of the Iraqi military.
The non-disclosure/non-use agreements for accessing the TDP will forbid the other companies from using Colt’s proprietary data for commercial sales. Once their military contract ends, the company will be required to be destroy all of the TDP information provided to them.
The following link provides the US Army’s standard non-disclosure/non-use agreement for contractors accessing the M16 TDP:
https://aais.ria.army.mil/AAIS/Solinfo/Standard_Attachments/Colt-M16_Non_Disclosure_Agreement.doc
July 10th, 2009 at 9:00 am
[...] other day I noted that the rights to the M4 Cabine had passed to the US Army from Colt, allowing the Army to solicit bids from other manufacturers if it wants to buy [...]
July 17th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
[...] Army acquires rights to M4 and More on the M4 Rights Other manufacturers can bid to build M4 carbines for the military. [...]
August 26th, 2009 at 9:02 am
[...] Mentioned before was that the Army had taken over the design rights for the M4. Colt rebuts that statement. [...]