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With a contract to replace the French Army’s bolt-action FRF2 sniper rifle expected in the near future, Verney-Carron, one of France’s premier sporting gun makers is positioning itself to win the contract.
Verney-Carron was established in 1820 and has a successful line of sporting guns and security equipment including the Flash Ball, a rubber ball launcher, and they were also a subcontractor for the FAMAS before production ended.
The company’s military division, Verney-Carron Defense, was launched in 2017. They currently offer two weapons: a 5.56x45mm assault rifle, the VCD-15 and the 7.62x51mm VCD-10, a semi-automatic precision rifle. It is the VCD-10 that Verney-Carron Defense hope will win the upcoming precision rifle tender. The FRF2 entered service in 1986, alongside the FAMAS, based on the MAS-36, the FRF2 is due for replacement. The company displayed the VCD-15 and VCD-10 for the first time at the 2018 Eurosatory defence and security fair.
The French Army adopted Heckler & Koch’s HK416 to replace the FAMAS in 2016, this was a contract that Verney-Carron were blocked from bidding for due to them not making 80 million euros ($93 million) turnover a year. This paved the way for the adoption of the HK416F.
Verney-Carron’s chief executive, Guillaume Verney-Carron, feels his company is ideally placed to meet the future precision rifle tender. Her told BFM Business that his company was ready, “This is to provide about 2,500 units over three or four years, and that we know how to do.” He told l’Essor that “over the past two years we have invested more than one million euros to complete our production tool in machining centers and to develop a precision rifle and an assault rifle inspired by the AR10 and the AR15 ”
Guillaume Verney-Carron explained that he sees Heckler & Koch as the primary rival for the FRF2 replacement contract, saying: “since the closure of the MAS, there are no more French companies on this range of products, we come back to show that the French industry can compete with large foreign companies.”
