: It’s been nine years since the Canadian Forces plan to acquire new handguns to replace the Browning Hi-Power (shown here being used in Afghanistan) was derailed. Some inside the Canadian military blame the Small Arms Strategic Source program for the ongoing failure to provide pistols to CAF personnel. (Canadian Forces photo)
By David Pugliese
In a flurry of sole-source contracts over the last several months the Canadian military has embarked on a series of purchases of small arms from Colt Canada.
Colt is the country’s Small Arms Strategic Source and Centre of Excellence and the sole source deals maintain the 100-member workforce at the company’s facilities in Kitchener, Ontario.
But questions have been raised in industry circles and in the Canadian Armed Forces on whether having such a strategic small arms capability makes sense for the military and for taxpayers.
Stéfanie Hamel, a spokeswoman for Public Services and Procurement Canada, told Esprit de Corps that the federal government’s program has allowed the production of quality firearms by Colt for decades. “DND successfully procured multiple small arm fleets through Colt Canada over the years and has the capacity to sustain those fleets during the entire life cycles, including access to sustainment programs, parts, and technical expertise,” Hamel explained. “This stable Canadian small arms manufacturing and maintenance capacity is considered key for the constant readiness of the CAF for domestic and international operations.”
But critics correctly point out that having Colt assume such a role has been costly to taxpayers and has created excessive delays over the years in getting pistols, rifles and machine-guns into the hands of Canadian Armed Forces personnel.
Those who argue against the small arms strategic source concept point out that the days of viewing firearms as a strategic source is no longer valid in a world awash in small arms and companies eager to provide quality weapons at reasonable prices.
Colt produced firearms are seen as quality products by the federal government but that comes with a steep price. In late January Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan announced that the government was purchasing more than 3,600 new C6AI FLEX General Purpose Machine Guns from the company. The $96 million order was a follow-on deal to the 2017 contract for 1,148 of the same machine guns. Some spare parts are included along with cleaning kits and carrying slings in the purchase.
Critics point out that the design of the gun is pretty much the same a previous C6s (based on the FN MAG) but there have been cosmetic changes such as the installation of a top rail and the replacement of the wooden butt stock with a polymer one.
What is different is the cost. The cost of each gun works out to around $27,000, at least twice the amount that other militaries are spending.
In February and April the federal government quietly awarded two other contracts to Colt to produce a semi-automatic rifle in 7.62 calibre to be used by sniper teams as an auxiliary weapon.
The process to acquire what is being called the C20 has been interesting. The acquisition will cost taxpayers $8.5 million for 272 rifles and spare parts.
The federal government initially awarded a $2 million contact to Colt Canada in Kitchener on February 28 to establish a production line to see if it could produce the C20 weapon. That contract also included an initial delivery of 10 of the C20 rifles. That early production run was to ensure Colt had the technical proficiency to deliver the new weapon, according to the Department of National Defence.
The federal government then awarded a $6.5 million contract to Colt Canada on April 17 to produce 262 additional C20 rifles, associated equipment and spare parts.
Canadian Rangers use their new rifles provided by Colt Canada but based on a rifle produced by Sako of Finland. Questions have been raised whether it makes financial sense to spend up to $4,000 for a
bolt-action rifle. (Canadian Forces photo)
The awarding of the contracts were not announced by the DND. The department says it does not have details on the per unit cost of the rifles. But officials acknowledge that taxpayers are paying a premium to have the guns manufactured in Canada under what is called the Munitions Supply Program (that includes the stipulation that Colt is the small arms strategic source). Critics point out that each rifle is costing taxpayers more than $24,000 each.
Probably the most glaring examples of the problems associated with having a small arms strategic source are the lengthy acquisition programs for the Canadian Ranger rifle and the still delayed project to buy new handguns to replace the military’s Browning Hi-Power pistols.
In 2011, the Canadian Armed Forces announced its plan to buy the new pistols and Ranger rifles and then went looking for prices from industry. Approximately 10,000 handguns were to be bought with deliveries to start in the fall of 2015.
Ten thousand Ranger rifles would also be acquired, with deliveries to start in 2014.
Foreign firms would bid their weapons for the contracts but in both cases the guns would be built by Colt Canada.
The main problem, according to industry representatives, was the stipulation that the firms provide a Technical Data Package – essentially proprietary information about the firearms – to the Canadian government, with the understanding that would be passed to Colt Canada. Using that information Colt, in turn, would build the guns in Kitchener.
The companies, including some who saw Colt as a competitor, essentially balked at that plan, leaving Canada with no one interested in its competition.
Industry representatives told Esprit de Corps that since the numbers of pistols Canada was buying were relatively small, companies were not inclined to turn over their technical data to Colt. Similar comments were received from the manufacturers of bolt action long guns who might have competed their weapons in the competition to acquire new Ranger rifles.
Colt officials pointed out at the time that the concerns expressed by the firms were unfounded as Colt Canada successfully maintained foreign-made machineguns purchased by the Canadian Forces (C-6s and C-9s) without any major concerns expressed by manufacturers.
Even still, just months later, the Canadian government retreated on its small arms purchases, cancelling its 2011 request to the companies for information about prices and availability. The programs went into limbo as the government tried to figure out what to do.
Besides concerns about Colt as a potential competitor, various small arms companies pointed out the other difficulty with the acquisitions. The numbers of weapons being purchased by Canada were so small that it simply made more sense to place a direct order through the Canadian distributors for those guns. (In some cases, handgun orders to police forces in large U.S. metropolitan centres dwarfed what the Canadian military wanted.) It didn’t make economic sense to have Colt manufacture the guns in Canada or even to have parts shipped to Colt so the guns could be assembled in Canada, industry representatives argued.
In 2016 the Canadian Forces outlined to defence industry representatives – once again – how the replacement for the Browning Hi-Powers would move forward. Industry officials were told then that between 15,000 and 25,000 handguns were needed, with the Canadian military estimating the project would cost around $50 million. Deliveries of the new General Service Pistol would start in 2022-2023.
But sources inside National Defence headquarters in Ottawa say the stumbling block to moving forward continues to be the insistence by DND bureaucrats to have the guns built in Kitchener by Colt Canada.
The Ranger Rifle program did move forward, albeit slowly. The Tikka T3 by Sako of Finland was selected. Colt assembled the rifles but the first weapons didn’t get into the hands of the Rangers until 2018. The Canadian Forces put the price tag for each bolt action rifle at about $4,000. As one small arms industry official pointed out: “That’s pretty expensive for a bolt action rifle which is used mainly for hunting seals.”
Ironically, Sako now markets the same rifle in Canada as the Tika T3x Arctic but the cost to the public is only $2,800. Those specific rifles are made in Finland and were available to the Canadian public even before the Rangers started receiving their weapons.
Ultimately, buying small arms “off the shelf” can be done and something the Canadian Armed Forces has admitted can be accomplished.
The DND and Procurement Canada plan to hold a competition among small arms firms to provide the CAF with 229 C21 rifles. The C21 will be a bolt action medium-range sniper rifle.
So why didn’t Colt receive that contract? “A Munition Supply Program Business Case Analysis was conducted and it was determined that it would be more cost effective to compete the procurement of the C21 as opposed to have Colt Canada perform the work,” the DND noted. “Creating a new production line at Colt Canada was estimated to be more expensive than leveraging existing production lines currently manufacturing modern multi-calibre sniper rifles through a competitive procurement process.”
There was no explanation, however, why it made economic sense to hold a competition for 229 C21 rifles but it didn’t make financial sense to hold a similar competition for the purchase of 272 C20 rifles, the deal handed to Colt on a sole-source basis.
What will the future hold for the Canadian small arms market?
The federal government is obviously committed to Colt as the Centre of Small Arms Excellence. “With Colt Canada as the strategic source of supply and centre of excellence for small arms, the Government of Canada has the ability to produce small arms domestically, ensuring the development of a viable and internationally competitive industry that gives Canada long-term industrial and economic benefits,” explained Hamel, the spokeswoman for Public Services and Procurement Canada. But she added: “The government can compete small arms procurements when it is determined to be better value for Canada.”
That statement may hold out hope for Canadian Armed Forces personnel who have been waiting a decade for a new handgun.
It will now be up to defence firms to lobby the Liberal government MPs to allow for an open competition, taking into account the savings to taxpayers and the speedy acquisition for new handguns for the troops. And it will be up to the politicians to follow through on what is best for Canadian Armed Forces personnel.
