BREAKING: US Army Cancels Sub Compact Weapon Program!
Over the last few weeks OVD/TFB have been keeping abreast of the US Army’s Sub Compact Weapon program. The program to arm Personal Security Details with a new compact, concealable submachine gunsaw contracts awarded to as many as 13 companies to supply weapons for testing. You can check out my two-part breakdown of the weapons submitted by the 13 to the program here & here.
On the 2nd July, however, the Synopsis of Contract Award notice was updated stating that the Sub Compact Weapon program has been cancelled, at least temporarily. This means that all 13 of the contracts awarded to vendors in June have been cancelled. It appears that the programs specifications and requirements have changed and need to be rewritten before the program can move forward.
Here is what the update to the contract award notice page on FedBizOps says:
“This Synopsis of Contract Award is amended on 02 July 2018 to notify industry that due to changes in the Government’s requirement, this opportunity is hereby cancelled effective immediately.
The Government is in the process of establishing new requirements for the Sub Compact Weapon Program and will announce the changes on fbo.gov within the next two weeks. Vendors interested in being notified for this new opportunity are encouraged to sign up under the “Interested Vendors List” tab of this announcement.”
The preliminary contracts awarded back in June had a combined worth of almost $260,000. Those companies still interested in submitting designs to the Sub Compact Weapon competition will have to resubmit and respond to the newly rewritten requirement. The US Army Contracting Command’s New Jersey office, who are handling the program on behalf of Project Manager, Soldier Weapons, were contacted but declined to comment beyond the official notice update.
The update on the cancellation states that a refined set of new requirements will be issued in the next two weeks.
Sources:
‘Synopsis of Contract Award – Update’, FedBizOps, retrieved 06/07/18 from source