This story from the News Observer is an awesome read. Sure it’s from February –but if hadn’t seen it ’till now, I’ll wager a few of you guys haven’t either. Maybe it’s time for an episode of “Where Are they Now”?
Aside from throwing Kimber under the bus, these guys have probably managed to red flag their whole agency firearms procurement program for fulfilling their high-end gun fetishes.
Read MoreThe 2012 National Defense Authorization Bill has gotten some attention recently, though not nearly as much as the wrangling over payroll tax cut extension. Bear with me, there’s gear news in here. People are not upset about what’s in the bill (S.1867), but what’s not in the bill. There was language in an early draft of the bill that explicitly protected American citizens from another portion of the bill that authorized detention of America’s enemies by the military. Somewhere along the way, the bill was amended and this language adding protection to U.S. citizens was struck from the bill.
Protectors of civil liberties were enraged and news reports circulated and opinions were formed. I’m not going to get into the politics, but as I said, there is actual gear news in here.
Since the NDAA is the blueprint for next year’s military spending, many companies’ profits are staked to its passage. Surefire among them. 99%ers and hackers have taken up the call and are threatening all kinds of action against those whom they perceive were involved. Surefire, along with AAC, won what could be a healthy portion of government’s suppressor business (it’s an IDIQ contract), so portions of the Internet see them as supporting the idea that Americans can be indefinitely detained by U.S. military forces.
The DoD is buying a lot of gear and Surefire isn’t alone in getting lumped in with supporters of the bill, Honeywell and Bluewater Defense were also called out. Surefire felt strongly enough to draft a response, which I’ve included below.
Statement from Surefire:
We’ve been made aware of various articles pertaining to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and SureFire’s alleged role as a lobbyist and/or financial supporter of the bill and its primary political backer, Sen. Robert Portman. The news reports are using our associations with a Political Action Committee (PAC), a former consulting group, and a government contract to infer that we support indefinite military detention of American citizens without charge or trial. These reports are false and misleading. Our association with this bill has nothing to do with citizens’ rights and SureFire is now the casualty of a disregard for sound journalism.
We’ve never supported the removal of citizens’ rights let alone do we have any connection with those responsible for the injustice. Any news outlet alleging SureFire’s support of anti-American rights, is reporting lies. SureFire’s support of unrelated parts of the NDAA does not constitute support for every part of the bill like those that are now being contested.
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We just heard from Saab that the U.S. Army has ordered 84mm recoilless rifles. The Swedish company announced that they’ve signed a contract with the Army for the company’s Carl-Gustaf man-portable weapon system. Thought the systems has been in the SOCOM armory for years, this marks the first time the Army has bought the 84mm recoilless rifle system. The Army and U.S. Special Operations Command placed a combined order with a total value of $31.5m (209m Swedish Kroners).
The request for 126 launchers came as part of an Urgent Needs Statement from the Afghan theater to support the efforts of the currently deployed 3/10 Brigade Combat Team and the 82nd Airborne Division, which is an on-deck unit in the OEF deployment cycle. The UNS addresses the need to effectively engage enemy rocket propelled grenade and machine gun teams that are beyond 900 meters or fighting from hard cover. Existing systems in the Y,S, armory, such as the M141 Bunker Defeat Munition, M72 LAW, M136 AT-4 and the SMAW, are only effective inside of 500 meters. The Army says the Carl-Gustaf is more effective than waiting on mortars and less expensive than artillery or Javelin missiles.
“Saab is thrilled that the U.S. Army has joined with our existing U.S. Special Operations Command customer in using the Carl-Gustaf system,” said Saab North America’s president, Dan-Åke Enstedt.
The Carl-Gustaf M3 version represents a system that has been successively modernized and adapted to meet new requirements. A multi-role, man-portable shoulder-fired weapon, the system is in use in more than 40 countries.
(photo courtesy: Saab)
Read MoreJust this morning, the Marine Corps issued an RFI for the Corpsman Assault Pack (CAP). The CAP was referenced with a placeholder in the Marine Corps Pack System (previously known as FILBE) contract and the pack is a USMC owned design. So, they are putting this out to see who wants to sew it for them, not to solicit ideas on its design.
The Corps is looking for 10,000 packs, total, each one consisting of the Corpsman Assault Pack, 18 medical inserts, a sustainment bag, trauma pouch, and thigh rig.
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I caught sight of the new Smith & Wesson carbine on display Monday at AUSA. The flat dark earth-ish M&P4 stood out from S&W’s standard black rifles, the M&P15. I talked to David Holt, S&W’s VP of Military Programs who confirmed it was S&W’s entry into the U.S. Army’s individual carbine competition. He explained the company’s decision not to compete in the Army’s search for a new carbine, “the Army’s strategy moving forward makes it tough for us to commit.” He cited the program’s long acquisition timeline as one of the factors that made it difficult for Smith and Wesson to assume the risk of joining the carbine fray.
But, that doesn’t mean the M&P4 will be abandoned. They’ve put a lot of hours into the project and are very proud of the reliability improvement’s they’ve made over the M4 design. So, the carbine will likely end up for sale on the commercial LE/Gov market, though they’ve offered no timeline for its availability.
S&W has made some improvements to their M4 platform, namely adding a tougher surface finish, an improved bolt lug design, tougher bolt and bolt carrier group finish, a newly designed muzzle, as well as a few other upgrades that they aren’t ready to talk about, yet.
Of note, though, is the bolt carrier assembly. Smith & Wesson is competing it in the Army’s contract for an improved bolt carrier assembly kit.
Surefire had been awarded lots I and 2 of SOCOMs Family of Muzzle Brake Suppressors contract. These are the lots that cover cans for the M4CQBR and MK13.
I’m still waiting to hear who won the other lots, though I’ve heard plans to fit suppressors for other weapons on the SOCOM contract, like the M16A4, M27, and M48 are on hold for various reasons.
Even so, the two IDIQ contract lots alone are worth about $23.3 million and represents the largest suppressor contract Surefire has won to date. We’ll see who else got a part of this one, I’m guessing KAC, AAC and maybe GemTech had hats in the ring on this one, too.
Products selected by Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, are:
Photo: courtesy Surefire
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All sorts of news is dropping as the pieces of the USMC’s new pack fall into place. We’ve just learned unofficially, but fairly certainly (see photo) that the Corps will be using a version of Camelbak’s new Antidote reservoir. This is a service specific version that is shaped to fit the FILBE Marine Corps Pack System hydration carrier. Camelbak will introduce the commercial MilSpec Antidote reservoir that will have features that the Corps felt it didn’t need for the FILBE fielding.
News of the Marine Corps’ FILBE pack contract flew in under the radar late last week. SYSCOM awarded a pair of contracts Friday, one for $50.1 million to Eagle Industries and another worth $47.5 million to Propper. Reading into the award brief, it’s clear that FILBE’s carrying a healthy dose of Mystery Ranch DNA*.
I called up to the Ranch this morning and got a few details on the award and the bag that Grunts will be shouldering next year.
Dana Gleason, the head honcho up at Mystery Ranch, spoke with me about their involvement with FILBE. Mystery Ranch ended up getting brought in as a subcontractor on a separate USMC contract to optimize and build a set of FILBE prototypes for testing. He told me: “We had a certain amount of time to play with it and look at the critical elements that were part of the system. We were there to optimize it as much as possible for the Corps. We were not there to try to turn it into something entirely different than its basic roots.” The Corps would ultimately incorporate features of the tested prototype into the final FILBE design.
The FILBE is three parts: the main pack, the assault pack and the hydration pack (which will contain a USMC specific version of Camelbak’s milspec Antidote hydration reservoir). The main pack grew out of Natick’s Airborne Pack System and is based on the ALICE frame-sized, government-owned, Downeast 1606 frame. Mystery Ranch took the Airborne Pack System & FILBE drawings and worked to optimize the main and assault pack designs for a month and is proud to see the Corps has adopted a few of the design enhancements. Shown at right is the Mystery Ranch version of FILBE mounted on their NICE BBS frame as opposed to the Downeast 1606 frame the Marines will field.
Gleason describes Mystery Ranch’s touches to the design by saying “anybody that looks at the hipbelt will go ‘oh, there’s some MOLLE in there,’ until they discover that we put a lumbar pad behind the back of the hip belt that stabilizes things ever so much more and locks [the pack] directly into to the frame.”
Other features:
“We saved weight, though it’s not really light,” Gleason said when I asked how much the bag weighs. He hints FILBE is not the bag you’d want to take on the Appalachian Trail. “Its basic genes still come from MOLLE. We built it in 500d Cordura with a differential cut bottom and a few reinforcing pieces of 1000d Cordura, especially in the assault ruck.”
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The whole story is being reported in this week’s Marine Corps Times by my colleague James Sanborn. But, here are my thoughts on the Marines’ full fielding based on conversations with some well known trainers, as well as my own use of the Blackhawk SERPA holster.
It’s great that the Corps acknowledged the ageing design of the old M-12 holster and is replacing it so that Marines can stop spending their own money to get a decent retention holster. But buying a Level 2 SERPA for every pistol in the Corps’ inventory is, at best, controversial and, at worst, dangerous.
Aside from the obvious example of Tex Grebner shooting himself while drawing from a SERPA, there are other concerns about the safety and performance of the SERPA holster. Tex’s shooting could have been avoided with proper training, but the fact remains that a fairly experienced shooter faced with only self-imposed stressors shot himself on the draw. Sure, this could have happened with any holster, but I can’t ignore the holster’s design relying on the trigger finger for activation as a strong contributing factor.
Aside from the safety issue, there is a common thread of concern about pistols getting stuck in the holster. A roll in the dirt, gravel and even snow, get debris under the spring-loaded retention release button, jamming it closed and imprisoning the pistol. Kyle Lamb, former SFO-D member and president of Viking Tactics, tells me that he’s seen it jam in his classes, “when you get dirt in the mechanism it doesn’t work… It takes 2-3 guys pulling up on the gun to get it out of the holster.”
Here’s a video from 2005 of instructor Craig Douglas (A.K.A. Southnarc) from ShivWorks stopping a close quarters fighting class as a student and instructors struggle to free a training gun from a SERPA holster that was exposed to loose dirt.
Granted, Blackhawk did open the channel up a bit to allow trapped debris an easier path to exit, but doesn’t that allow an easier path to entrance, as well?
Who fights in dirt like that, some might say. So, a little Google-foo brings up the same issue but this time it’s in snow. I found this 2010 video on YouTube user Sturmgewehre’s “Military Arms Channel” and it demonstrates how easily the release mechanism can become jammed with fluffy white stuff. Skip to 1:46 for the goods.
I don’t see why Blackhawk doesn’t cover the release button with a flexible cover to keep debris out. Boom. One problem solved.
I can maybe understand individuals buying SERPAs and taking them into combat after recognizing and training to overcome the quirks of their operation. But, this is a system that demands a lot of training. Giving them to everyone in the Corps without a strong training program in place to teach and reinforce the muscle memory required for safe use in stressful situations is asking for trouble.
Lastly, I’m sure a lot of you are wondering how Safariland’s holsters fared against the Blackhawk.
SYSCOM told Marine Corps Times the Blackhawk SERPA was selected after a series of tests to include integration and interference evaluation, dry-fire drills and live-fire drills but they didn’t elaborate on the other competitors nor the program requirements.
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Confirming an anonymous tip I received back in mid-July, Ops-Core just gave us the official news that the Norwegian’s are buying Ops-Core FAST Ballistic helmets for their whole Army.
According to Norwegian Defense Logistic Organization (NDLO) program manager Per Morten Brunborg, they chose the F.A.S.T. Ballistic helmet as the new standard issue lid because the “helmet saves the overall program money by allowing us to field it service wide in several configurations, instead of having to field several different kinds of helmets like we used to. It’s also very beneficial that we can provide our soldiers better ballistic performance at a much lighter weight than our previous helmet.”
In a nutshell, they are embracing the Ops-Core helmet as a system by using ballistic and non-ballistic accessories to outfit each unit with a helmet that suits their mission and capability. To wit, the Norwegians ordered side armor, mandibles, helmet covers and rear counterweights. Each of these items provides added protection and performance that can be tailored on a per-mission basis.
Our tipster originally told us the month’s long selection process was called project 4004 and came down to three vendors, with Ops-Core coming out on top. Ops-Core is mum on the particulars (how many, how much), but we were told earlier that an initial order of up to 1000 lids will ship to meet a late 2011 deadline to equip a deploying unit.
We asked Ops-Core CEO David Rogers how an order this large would affect their current production and pricing of the F.A.S.T. Ballistic helmet:
“The Norwegian project is something we are very proud of, and will also afford expansion of our current production capacity. This will result in shorter delivery lead times for other customers once this additional capacity is online. Our prices are directly resultant from our raw material costs, and the increased volume based upon this order is not sufficient for our vendors to decrease their prices. Once we exceed orders for 100,000 helmets or more, our prices will be reduced accordingly.”
Congrats, Ops-Core.
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