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FN Manufacturing in Columbia, SC received an $11.5 million firm-fixed-priced, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract to refurbish and overhaul machine guns in support of multiple US military agencies.
The company will overhaul MK46 lightweight machine gun (LMG), MK 48 LMG, and the M240 machine gun.
Both the MK46 and MK48 LMGs are designed specifically for US special ops requirements. The Mk46 is a lighter weight variants of the 5.56mm M249 “Minimi” Squad Automatic Weapon…
The M240 was adopted by the US military following a competition for a 7.62 mm machine gun for use as a coaxial weapon for armored vehicle application. The coaxial version of the Belgian MAG 58, produced by FN Herstal, won the competition. The M240 has a reliability rating of 26,000 mean rounds between failure (MRBF). The US military uses the machine gun in vehicle, aviation, and infantry variants. The US variants are produced by FN Manufacturing, a US subsidiary of FN Herstal.
The Mk48 is also a 7.62mm weapon, but it’s derived from the M249 instead.
FN will perform the work in Columbia, SC, and expects to complete it by April 2015. Contract funds in the amount of $315,056 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
This contract was awarded on a sole-source basis with the solicitation being publicized on the FedBizOpps Web site. Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Crane Division in Crane, IN manages the contract (N00164-10-D-JN09).