The U.S. Army has awarded West Hartford-based manufacturer Colt’s Manufacturing Co. a $57.2 contract for M4 and M4A1 carbines, according to the U.S. Department of Defense Website.
The contract, awarded on May 16, is scheduled to be completed by Sept. 18, with the location of the work yet to be determined. The Army Contracting Command in Newark, N.J., awarded the contract.
Carbines, or long guns with shortened barrels, are used in military settings by troops including special operations soldiers and paratroopers. Colt developed the M4 platform in the 1980s and has since introduced the M5 and other carbine models.
A Czech company, Česká Zbrojovka Group SE, bought Colt in 2021 for $220 million in cash and 1.1 million shares of its stock. The parent company did not respond to requests for comment on the new contract.
Czech President Petr Pavel visited the West Hartford plant last year, highlighting the gunmaker’s symbolic and economic importance. Colt sales were up 50 percent since the acquisition and the West Hartford location employed 340 people, company officials said at the time.
Colt’s Manufacturing has secured several major Army deals in recent years, including a $26.7 million contract awarded on May 1 for M4A1 carbines, suppressors, and flash suppressors, with the work to be done in West Hartford. “Fiscal 2024 Foreign Military Sales (Israel) funds in the amount of $26,675,000 were obligated at the time of the award,” reads the announcement on the Defense Department website.
The Army awarded Colt’s Manufacturing a $41.9 million foreign military sales contract for M4 and M4A1 carbines in 2019, and two domestic carbine contracts for $88.6 million and $57.7 million in 2018.
Colt’s gun sales to Israel drew protest to the company’s West Hartford headquarters at 545 New Park Ave. last November, with picketers denouncing Israel’s actions in Gaza and demanding that Colt stop doing business with the country.
Colt’s Manufacturing Co. is the modern incarnation of the pioneering firearms maker founded by Samuel Colt in Hartford in 1855. The historic Colt factory complex south of downtown Hartford has been redeveloped into housing and office space.
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