vanfunk
Member
When I talked to Springfield Armory, they were the first to have a AR15 rifle on the market.
Can you clarify your source for this? AFAIK, Springfield Armory never made an AR-15 pattern rifle.
I think it was Bushmaster who broke the Colt monopoly on civilian sales.
Bushmaster, like any other company, was free to manufacture rifles of the AR-15 pattern after the original design patents ran out. What Colt trademarked (wisely) was the AR-15 moniker, which of course no other manufacturer can use. That's why the Bushmaster offering is an XM15E2S, etc.
It is so unfortunate but Colt is not a market leader on anything. All Colt has is a history going back to the 1850's, patents and trademarks, and a huge bunch of lawyers. I suspect Colt has sued every firearm company that has ever produced a SAA, a lever action, a shotgun, or a semi automatic rifle.
Colt has led the way in product innovation for the AR-15 family of weapons, and currently makes 8000 M4's a month. The fact that they have attempted to protect their product (with varying degrees of success) is simply sound business practice. Cometition is a good thing, consumer confusion about product integrity is another. For example, an "M4" is a very specific type of weapon, endowed with certain physical and operational characteristics. When Bushmaster says they make an "M4", but it doesn't have M4 feedramps, or an "F" marked front sight base, or a 1/7" twist barrel, or a mil-spec receiver extension, or an MPI'd bolt, etc., is it really an M4? Well, no.
Anyway, in answer to the original query, right now only Colt and FN (and LMT in some way, to the Navy) supply weapons to the US military. Colt recently received a contract for more M16A4 rifles; FN produces only M16A4 rifles at present. Colt has the exclusive contract to provide the military with the M4 until 2009. At that point, Colt will likely retain the current contract, although FN is expected to supplement M4 production.