by David Crane
david at defensereview.com
On March 27, 2006, DefenseReview published an article on the Ultimax 100 MK4 LMG/SAW (magazine-fed), which appears to have been developed to meet the U.S. Marine Corps’ (USMC) stated requirements for a "Non-developmental, 5.56mm, Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR)". That article was titled Ultimax 100 MK4: Best Choice for USMC Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR)? Video Clip.
Well, Colt just introduced what appears to be its own full-auto, heavy-barreled, (Beta C-Mag) double-drum mag-fed
IAR-type LMG/SAW. This article contains what may be the first pictures ever shown of the new weapon to the public. They introduced it at the NDIA Small Arms Symposium 2006. Like the
Ultimax 100 MK4 SAW/LMG, the Colt weapon is essentially a mag-fed (as per
IAR requirement) Light Machine Gun/Squad Automatic Weapon (LMG/SAW)-type weapon, utilizing the 100-shot
Beta C-MAG double-drum magazine for its firepower. The
C-MAG, by the way, was designed and developed for
Beta Co. by Jim Sullivan (L. James Sullivan), who, coincidentally, also designed and developed the original Ultimax 100 LMG. Small world, huh? Anyway, we don’t have a lot of info on the mystery Colt mag-fed IAR/LMG/SAW-type weapon yet. However, we’ve been told by a source external to Colt that…
it’s gas-piston-driven (which the photos appear to confirm) like the Colt LE1020 semi-auto rifle/carbine that was introduced SHOT Show 2006. And, it’s supposed to fire full-auto-only, not select-fire (unconfirmed/unverified). Defense Review will be try to verify this with Colt, and report back to our readers. OA weight is as yet unknown. The new Colt LMG/SAW essentially looks like a beefed-up LE1020. We don’t know what Colt’s calling the new weapon yet, so we’ll try to find that out, too.
The new Colt IAR/LMG/SAW-type weapon sports a monolithic-type upper receiver (possibly SOPMOD-2-config) with Mil-Std-1913 rail system and flip-up front BUIS (Back-Up Iron Sight) permanenently fixed to the gas block, a la Colt LE1020. It might be the same upper. We’ll look into it.
Looks like I’ve got some phone calls to make today.
Photos (Click on photos to view them full-size.):
Related DefRev Articles: