Some call for open carbine competition

[unhappycamper]

Some call for open carbine competition
By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday May 25, 2008 10:17:18 EDT

DALLAS — The M4 Carbine was not named anywhere on the agenda, but the Army’s individual weapon of choice for soldiers dominated discussions at this forum on small arms and fueled the debate over its future on the battlefield.

Speakers representing the small-arms industry, Congress and an arm of the Defense Department’s test community all used this year’s International Infantry & Joint Services Small Arms Systems Symposium to call for the Army to put its M4 Carbine in competition against all comers from the commercial market to find out whether soldiers are carrying the best available weapon into combat.

“We think there should be a competition,” said Bryan O’Leary, speaking on behalf of Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in a brief May 21 speech at the symposium.

For more than a year, the Army has been under scrutiny for continuing to equip all of its combat forces with the M4, a weapon that many contend is less reliable compared to more modern carbine designs available today. The Army began fielding the M4 in the mid 1990s.

Coburn has pressured Army leadership to look at other options, pointing to U.S. Special Operations Command’s move to replace its M16s and M4s with the newly developed Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle, also known as SCAR.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/army_m4debate_052408w/



uhc comment: Too bad I don't have Lexis/Nexus to look up Colburn's connection with a competing arms manufacturer.