I find it odd that the country who made semi-auto small arms the standard while the rest of the world was still using bolt action and single shot weapons doesn't even design its own weapons any more. The M1911 and M1 Garand were the among the first semi-auto small arms to be widely distributed to all it's troops.
Now, we are equalled or exceeded in small arms by most "modern" countries. With the amount of money our military gets each year, more then 400 billion last year, we should have the finest small arms in the world. And, U.S. defense contractors should be at the forefront of small arms.
Instead, our troops are armed with the M9, which was designed by Beretta. It's not a bad gun and it "won" the shoot off with with another foreign weapon, a Sig. Heck, it's even a 9 mm Parabellum, designed by the German's.
They are also armed with the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, a light machine gun, designed by FN, a Belgium company. This is a variant of FN's widely used Minimi weapon. The M240 Medium Machine Gun is also an FN design, a variant of the Belgium company's FN-MAG.
Even our special forces are using HK MP5's submachine guns, HK SOCOM, both made in Germany, as well as the Mk24 (Sig 226) designed and made in Germany and Switzerland.
Now, for sniping use, the M24 and M40's are American designed and built. It's a modified Remington 700 rifle. Thank God for shotguns...those American designed and built pump action beauties: Remington 870, Mossberg 500 and 590's. Oh..wait. What about the M1014? That's a Benelli M4 Super 90, semi-auto shotgun... designed and made in Italy. Crap....!
Well, at least we have the old gal, M2..Ma Deuce... Fifty Cal, heavy machine gun designed by John Browning in 1921 and our standard heavy machine gun. The M60 medium machine gun is still in service. too and it is American, but neither of these guns are carried around all that much. They spend a lot fo their time mounted to helicopters and other vehicles. Not exactly a small arm.
OH, wait... we have the M16/M4...yippie! Err, not. The Jam-o-matic, by Mattel, I mean Armalite/Colt. It's accurate and as reliable as a... ummm, as a, umm...a Yugo. But the standard bullet is a Belgium designed SS109. can't even win there, on a caliber we forced on NATO.
Now, I am not saying S&W or Colt should win contract just because they are American companies, but one would think our companies would be competitive. We will see. As the two wars wear on, equipment is wearing out fast. Hopefully, our troops will have the best within the next decade.
