Along with the IAR finalists consisting of Heckler & Koch’s 416, FN’s HAMR, Colt submitted an entry to the Marine Corps Infantry Automatic Rifle competition. Of course, this is ancient history, and H&K won the competition with M27 IAR. However, unlike all the other competitors, Colt’s IAR 6940 submission has actually made it to market, for public sale. Not the entire rifle, but just the upper receiver. The competition uppers used by the Marine Corps must have been returned to Colt, or these were a prototype run that were actually never fired in the competition. But either way, around 150-200 of them are for sale through a company called U.S. Armament Corps, based in Ephrata, PA. The price is $2000, and can be purchased online through the company themselves.

The Colt IAR (Infantry Assault Rifle) was designed and submitted to the US Marine Corps for evaluation but eventually lost out to H&K for replacing the M249 SAW. These 100% Colt original uppers are all that is left of the program, and there are less than 200 available to the general public. (Factory New Condition)The Uppers feature MATECH front sights, circular forward assist, Colt marked upper receivers, Colt 1/7 twist barrels, heat sink hand-guards, and flip up front sights.

Apparently, Colt Defense actually worked very heavily with the owner of the company (which is a Title 10 manufacturer) in the design and prototyping of the Colt IAR, a certain Curtis Wolf who is the owner of U.S. Armament Corps. I don’t have much information other than this, but will update it if any readers can get in touch as to exactly what this relationship consisted of.

TFB has been able to obtain some photographs of the upper in private hands, from a owner who purchased it at a recent gun show.

And interestingly enough, Colt Defense was able to sell a number of the IARs to the Mexican military.

Specifications from Colt Defense-

Much Thanks to Jason Ono for providing the in-depth pictures for TFB!