The Army sets its sights on its next carbine - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

The Army sets its sights on its next carbine

The Army has given gun makers that want to build your next carbine 90 days to throw their hats in the ring. The message is clear: The Army isn’t looking for the lowest bidder, it’s looking for the most accurate, efficient, quiet, lethal and reliable weapon available.

Service leaders detailed what they want — and how they plan to get it — in a June 30 request for proposal. It seeks “an assault weapon that will provide accuracy, lethality, minimized visual and aural signature and survivability enhancements to all Army formations. … This weapon will possess the capability, in offensive and defensive operations, to destroy or neutralize the adversary and their capabilities, at any time and in any place.”

The RfP allows competitors to submit only one weapon for consideration. There are no caliber restrictions. Although many modern carbines are multicaliber weapons, they will compete with one caliber. And if a weapon’s caliber is not 5.56mm or 7.62mm, the manufacturer must provide 234,000 rounds to cover all tests.

Top performers will be identified by way of two down-select phases that will start this fall. Phase I will grade the weapons in three key areas:

• Technical aspects, such as the ability to mount existing weapons, optics and suppressor kits;

• The company’s ability to produce 2,000 and a surge of 4,200 carbines per month;

• Cost. The Army says performance factors are more important than price.

Competitors who make the grade will proceed to Phase II. In what officials have described as “extreme and extensive” tests expected to last 12 to 18 months, the Army will fire more than 2 million rounds to produce piles of data.

Weapons will be scored in five areas. They are, in order of priority:

• Development tests. These are anchored by a detailed evaluation of accuracy and dispersion at distances of 100, 300 and 600 meters using 90 rounds at each range. Another 21,600 rounds will be used to test reliability, durability and barrel life. Weapons will be tested to their destruction point and to determine whether they maintain accuracy throughout their life cycle — something the military has not tested before. A weapon typically loses accuracy as it ages.

Other events will test recoil mitigation, signature reduction and firing compatibility with the M320 grenade launcher, M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System and suppressor.

• Secondary development tests. Incapacitation is key here as the weapons must score kills in as few shots as possible. Sustained rates of fire and cook-off will be tested, as will the weapon’s ability to operate in extreme temperatures and environments.

Weapons will be beat up, dropped, submerged in water and fired while lacking lubrication and covered by ice and mud.

• Cost. The Army isn’t willing to get hoodwinked into high prices. But the RfP also states that “when all evaluation factors other than price are combined, they are significantly more important than price.”

• Government purpose rights. The Army will contract three vendors to produce a maximum of 178,890 carbines each. While this aspect of the contract is not a favorite among manufacturers, Army officials say it will keep costs down and ensure weapons keep coming even if one manufacturer can’t meet production goals.

• Limited user evaluation. These tests will use co-ed teams of 16 soldiers to determine each weapon’s probability and quality of hit, time of first trigger pull and mobility/portability in an operational environment.

The latter tests will be conducted at the Army Research Laboratory’s M-Range experimental facility and 500-meter obstacle course, according to the RfP.

The computerized M-Range has multiple stationary and moving targets in a scenario-based function. The twisting obstacle course has 16 pairs of identical obstacles that will make soldiers — wearing full battle rattle — do a variety of combat maneuvers such as running, jumping, climbing, crawling, balancing and negotiating buildings, stairs and windows.

Tests will include short- and long-range engagements, as well as close-quarters battle. Stationary, multiple and moving targets out to 600 meters will be used. Target exposure times will vary by range from 1.5 to 8 seconds.

Only the top three contenders will emerge from Phase II. Then, the competition becomes an exercise in analytics as officials weigh the good against the bad to determine which weapon has the best bang for its buck.

The dual-path strategy

The winning carbine will face off against the improved M4A1 in a battle to become your next weapon. But that point may be moot, as Army officials have said it is highly improbable that the M4A1 will stand a chance against a new carbine.

For starters, technology has driven new carbines to unprecedented levels. Gas and piston systems are much improved, and have even morphed into hybrid systems that have the best of both worlds. Interchangeable barrel sizes and calibers are common in such contenders as the FNH SCAR and Colt CM901.

Costs also have come down. For example, the Adaptive Combat Rifle — another leading contender — already costs less than the M4, according to Jason Schauble, vice president of Remington’s Defense Division. The M4 runs about $1,300 per copy.

Soldiers should see the new carbines in about three years, as the two testing phases are expected to take about two years, officials said.