Phase II of the Army's Individual Carbine Competition began in May 2012. Five contenders moved on from Phase I for the rights to succeed the M4 as the Army's standard issue carbine. Those 5 rifles are:
The second phase of testing will include high round count flogging, "torture" testing, accuracy testing, cost analysis, and a limited user evaluation (small groups of soldiers will personally evaluate each weapon). Interestingly, part of the IC competition states that the winner must sell rights to the rifle to the Gov't and then 3 companies will be selected to produce weapons en masse. That tidbit is important, as it likely caused several competitors to pull their rifles from the competition due to not wanting to lose rights to their design.
Ultimately, if no rifle proves superior to the M4, the Army plans to forge ahead with the currrently designed M4 with assorted upgrades (most likely to include a piston system, the keystone of the Colt APC).
The evaluation process will take some time; we may possibly have a winner sometime in 2013.
Be safe and have a good day.
~Mac
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