It’s no surprise that various gun companies want to be the Army’s next top gun runner. One in particular wants to shoot down competitor Colt and its M-4, the current rifle-of-choice, and fill the unrealized void for decades to come.
In an effort to vie for a hefty contract that really does not yet exist (we call it “uncovering unrealized needs”), German arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch (H&K), which really, really wants to supply the Army (and probably all Defense-dom and beyond) with its next rifle is set to meet with top Army officials — we hear Army Secretary Pete Geren himself (soon … like today), according to one source in the fray. (Word has it they might have a posse of former four-stars, including at least one former commandant of the Marine Corps.)
Though Army officials say they are holding fast to the M-4, the German arms dealer might not need the hard-sell. The source in the fray tells us Sec Army already might see the need for a new weapon, though we could not verify this through his office.
Thought to be a dead issue, the possibility of the new rifle is anything but. H&K’s stated goal is to get an “open competition” going for the Army’s next rifle and “may the best weapon win,” according to our source. Colt-bashing aside, he’s pretty confident H&K would trounce any other entry, and the HK416 already has proved itself, he says.
Despite the Army’s interest in keeping its M-4s attached to its soldiers, will Geren push for a competition for America’s Next Top Model? How much pull does the posse have? (We’re sure they’re not doing this for free.) Officers from the Army and the Marine Corps swoon at the mere utterance of an H&K anything. Is a compromise in the offing: Could a new rifle be a part of Army modernization?
Stay tuned. Tomorrow in “Good Guns Don’t, Good Guns Don’t … (But I do),” we’ll look at the somewhat controversial testing and the “Dialing for Dollars,” in which both the Army and gun runners Colt and H&K are engaged.