Army Wants Upgrades to Improve M4A1 Carbine's Performance, Accuracy | Military.com: The U.S. Army is considering several upgrades to the M4A1 Carbine that could improve its accuracy and performance and change the weapon's appearance.
Army weapons and contracting officials recently launched a market survey to see what the small-arms industry has to offer as far as better rails, triggers, charging handles and sights for the M4A1.
"The government is seeking to procure M4A1-Plus (abbreviated as M4A1+) components as non-development items ... for improvements to the M4A1 Carbine," according to the March 13 document posted on FedBizOpps.gov. "It is anticipated that the M4A1+ components will be evaluated as a system. The system must then install on/interface with stock M4A1 Carbines."
The Army decided to replace the standard M4 with the M4A1 in 2013 after the service abandoned a five-year effort to replace the M4 with a brand-new carbine.
The M4A1 is the special operations version of the M4 that's been in use for more than a decade. It features a heavier barrel and a full-auto trigger. The Army's decision to dump the current three-round burst trigger resulted in a more consistent trigger pull and better accuracy, weapons officials said.
The selection of the M4A1 came out of the service's M4 Product Improvement Program, which looked at improvements such as an improved rail, trigger pull, bolt and bolt-carrier group.
The M4A1+ effort will look for add-on components that will "seamlessly integrate with the current M4A1 Carbine ... without negatively impacting or affecting the performance or operation of the M4A1 weapon," the document states.
