BREAKING: US Army Selects 6 Companies for Sub Compact Weapon Programme
Déjà vu? Not quite. The US Army has announced the companies which have been down-selected for the Sub Compact Weapon programme. Six of the companies which responded to the Army’s Prototype Opportunity Notice have been selected for testing and evaluation and there are some surprising absences when we compare it with the previous round of vendors that were selected before the Army’s previous abortive RFI was abandoned.
Here’s my earlier breakdown of the 13 vendors who were initially awarded contracts during the first abortive round of the SCW programme. Solider Systems Daily have posted a list of vendors, which has not yet been confirmed by the US Army, but who they suggest were contacted by the Army Contracting Command last week. I have spoken to a number of the vendors listed and confirmed that they have been contacted. The following companies are believed to have been selected to take part in the SCW programme: Angstadt Arms, B&T USA, Global Ordnance, Shield Arms, SIG SAUER and Trident Rifles.
Gone are the MP5 clones from Zenith and PTR, gone too is Heckler & och themselves, who had submitted the UMP-9 previously. Many of the other big hitters including Colt, Beretta, CMMG, CZ-USA, LMT and Noveske are also absent from the list.
Of the six companies who have been selected only three were previously contracted: the Angstadt Arms Corporation for the Angstadt UDP-9 Sub Compact Weapon, SIG Sauer. for the SIG Sauer MPX Sub Compact Weapon and Trident Rifles for the B&T MP9.
If Trident Rifles are still submitting the MP9, the most compact of the submissions but seemingly disqualified by the programme’s specification for a non-folding stock and a forward magazine well, this would suggest that B&T USA are perhaps submitting the larger APC9K with a telescopic collapsing stock which is required by the SCW specifications. Shield Arms have confirmed that they are submitting a design based on their, soon to be released publicly, SA-9K and Global Ordnance, a Florida-based defence wholesaler has also submitted a proposal but it is unconfirmed what manufacturer or system their submission is based on, their website lists PDW systems from Daniel Defense, Colt, LWRC and SIG.
At least one other manufacturer we spoke to, Handl Defense, confirmed that they plan on filing a protest as they feel that they have been excluded on a procedural basis. TFB will continue to monitor SCW developments and bring you the latest on the submissions.