American firearms manufacturer Colt’s Manufacturing LLC  was awarded a $57,722,819 contract for procurement of M4 carbine rifles. 

On 20 September, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has announced that as part of the Foreign Military Sales the Colt’s Manufacturing LLC received a contract for procurement of up to 10,000 additional M4 and M4A1 5.56mm carbine rifles.

The new 5.56mm carbine rifles to be supplied to Jordan, Morocco, Afghanistan, Senegal, Tunisia and Pakistan as part of the Foreign Military Sales.

According to the DoD’s statement, work will be performed in West Hartford, Connecticut, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 20, 2019.

The M4 carbine is a shorter and lighter variant of the M16A2 assault rifle. The M4 is a 5.56×45mm NATO, air-cooled, direct impingement gas-operated, magazine-fed carbine.

The weapon delivers superior performance and accuracy for the joint coalition forces conducting the most challenging combat missions. The performance of M4 has been proven across the world in military operations, including combat actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The US Army has acquired a total of 500,000 M4 carbines since the M4 series was introduced in 1993. The M4 was also exported to the US allied forces and Nato nations as part of foreign military sales (FMS) packages.