Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Interesting Tidbit on Colt

From the Army Times:
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.

Army weapons officials maintain that it’s good to have the option of inviting other gun companies to compete to make the M4 as it is now, if the need arises, said Col. Doug Tamilio, project manager for soldier weapons.

“We probably won’t do anything with it right now. ... We have what we need,” Tamilio said. “The good news is we will own it now; that gives us the flexibility to do what we need it to do.”

Small-arms companies waiting for the chance to compete for the Army’s next carbine view Colt’s loss of the M4 TDP as a new beginning for the industry and for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
at

7 comments:

  1. Daniel E. Watters8:16 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/non-use 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.

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  2. Overload in Colorado11:00 PM

    "Small-arms companies waiting for the chance to compete for the Army’s next carbine view Colt’s loss of the M4 TDP as a new beginning for the industry and for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan."

    Ok, a new beginning for the industry I can ALMOST understand, but why for the soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan? They get the same gun, no?

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  3. nj_larry6:00 AM

    “We probably won’t do anything with it right now. ... We have what we need,” Tamilio said. “The good news is we will own it now; that gives us the flexibility to do what we need it to do.”

    Er...was he talking about GM, AIG, CitiGroup, or M4's? I get sooo confused with socialist government numbskulls these days...

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  4. Anonymous2:27 PM

    ALL above & us to

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  5. Daniel E. Watters6:41 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

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  6. Lisa Mathew6:35 AM

    Hi Michael,

    I saw your blog post very interesting.i am Lisa Mathew,a community member at www.nondisclosure-agreement.com/(Nondisclosure-agreement.com is the website for finding forms and sample agreements about NonDisclosure Agreement, Non-Disclsoure Agreements, NDAs and Confidentiality Agreements.)I 'd like to talk through email.is it possible to talk during this weekends ?

    Best-Regards,
    Lisa Mathew

    E- melisa.mathew@gmail.com

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  7. Haji11:15 PM

    As long as somebody doesn't get stupid and try to get a commercial maker in on making M4's, there will be no problems. Having FNH or LMT in on making more M4's is a good thing. Having commercial makers like Bushamster or DPMS building M4's will lead to problems, as they've never built to the standards of a TDP. Colt makes tens of thousands of rifles to Mil Spec with few issues. I'm confident that FN and LMT, and perhaps a couple others, could do that with no trouble. Some others...not so much.

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