The Blackout flash hiders, made by Advanced Armament Corp., replace the M4's closed flash hider with an open-prong device. The Army's Rapid Equipping Force shipped about 10,000 of these flash hiders to Afghanistan for use on the M4 carbine and the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon and about 1,000 flash hiders made by Surefire, for the 7.62mm M240 machine gun.
If we could get everyone a M42K, as well, things would be that much better.
Why the hell didn't they buy Blackouts for the M240? The Surefire model can't be cheaper.
[size=150]Machine gun snob by proxy. [/size]
[img]http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x190/tmixon762/Colt_Automatic_Rifle_01.jpg[/img]
The Blackout flash hiders, made by Advanced Armament Corp., replace the M4's closed flash hider with an open-prong device. The Army's Rapid Equipping Force shipped about 10,000 of these flash hiders to Afghanistan for use on the M4 carbine and the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon and about 1,000 flash hiders made by Surefire, for the 7.62mm M240 machine gun.
If we could get everyone a M42K, as well, things would be that much better.
Why the hell didn't they buy Blackouts for the M240? The Surefire model can't be cheaper.
Acquisition in the Army is a funny and fickle thing – … The war fighters’ requirements would be cut by the little old lady in comfy tennis shoes (the one who vets contracts) at the major command level. Then by the time the guys do get their request from a previous submitted deployment statement of requirements (DSOR) – the tech is outdated or they no longer have a “need” for said item(s) -or- item(s) came in but were routed incorrectly and some poge ass support unit got their trinkets…
The Army as a whole is trying to get better at the acquisition cycle – but still has a l o n g way to go. The Marines have always been budget restricted and have a much tighter and strictly regulated acquisition process – but they get it done and have (what I feel) is the model for testing / no and low cost acquiring / development / procurement /fielding / life cycle sustainment.
