The US Army has announced that two companies have been selected to produce mounted machine gun optic mounts, with the companies competing for the various orders within a $48,800,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the optics.

Back in July 2018, TFB reported that the Army was seeking new mounted machine gun optics for various weapon systems. US Army Contracting Command put out a pre-solicitation for optics for the 7.62x51mm M240B, the .50 calibre M2/M2A1 Machine Guns and the 40mm Mk19 grenade launcher.

Project Manager Soldier Weapons (PM SW) were looking for optics which would give faster target acquisition times and increased first burst hit probability for vehicle-mounted automatic weapons. The solicitation noted that up to three manufacturers would be selected but it appears that has been reduced to two companies with two awards each. BCF Solutions and Trijicon Inc. have been awarded contracts to bid for the phases of production, part of an $48,800,000 for an undisclosed number of optics. The earlier solicitation mentioned a maximum quantity of 11,450 optics.

The program briefly stalled last August, when the pre-solicitation was updated to note that the project was “still ongoing; however, we have reached a point in which we may redirect the procurement from a [federal acquisition regulation]-based procurement to an OTA-based procurement. The programme, however, got back on track and contract awards have now been issued.

Here’s the Department of Defense’s official announcement of the contracts:

BCF Solutions Inc.,* Arlington, Virginia (W15QKN-18-C-0088); BCF Solutions Inc.,* Arlington, Virginia (W15QKN-19-D-0089); Trijicon Inc.,* Wixom, Michigan (W15QKN-19-D-0095); and Trijicon Inc.,* Wixom, Michigan (W15QKN-19-D-0094), will compete for each order of the $48,800,000 firm-fixed-price contract for mounted machine gun optic mounts on the M2 and M2A1 machine guns, the M240 family of machine guns, and the MK19 grenade launcher. Bids were solicited via the internet with five received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of July 26, 2024. U.S. Army Contracting Command, New Jersey, is the contracting activity.

The Army currently uses a variety of optics, including the M145 Machine Gun Optic, it has not been confirmed exactly what optics the two companies have submitted but they may include Trijicon’s CCAS and the MGRS machine gun reflex sight, while the optics submitted by BCF Solutions, a project and acquisition management company, remain unknown.