Arms supplier will face closer scrutiny after defects
The Department of National Defence will be requiring a more stringent inspection process to prevent defective weapons from being shipped by Colt Canada to the Canadian Forces.
The Canadian Forces confirmed last week to the Citizen that 342 defective guns were received from Colt Canada and have now been returned to the company for repair. The weapons are part of a $120-million deal with the Kitchener, Ont., firm to build new C6A1 general-purpose machine-guns.
Military sources alerted the Citizen to the problems with the guns.
DND spokesperson Jessica Lamirande said Colt Canada is conducting an internal review to identify and address lapses in the processes that allowed faulty weapons to be delivered. In the meantime, the department is working closely with Colt Canada to make initial corrections to some of the practices, she said.
“This includes revising manufacturing work instructions, conducting enhanced employee education and implementing additional weapon inspections prior to final packaging. We will be requiring a more stringent inspection regime moving forward and will ensure that these aspects will, in fact, be applied.”
The problems affect the gun's gas regulator system, which allows for the proper function of the weapon. In addition, there are problems with a nut associated with the barrel of the gun.
In July 2017, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan announced that the Canadian government would purchase 1,148 new C6A1 FLEX general-purpose machine-guns from Colt Canada. The contract was worth $32 million.
In January 2020, the Liberal government announced it was going to spend $97 million on another batch of the C6A1s, some of which will be installed on armoured vehicles.
In announcing the original C6A1 contract, Sajjan said the guns would improve the Canadian Army's operational capability and would “help provide an advantage over potential adversaries.”
The DND noted that Colt Canada is covering all costs to repair the defects.
The company has committed to repairing and returning the 342 weapons by Sept. 30, the department says.
Colt Canada did not respond to questions about why more than 340 defective guns were provided to the Canadian military. Colt Canada did not provide comment on what changes would be put in place to prevent a repeat of the problems with the new C6 machine-guns.
But in a statement to the Citizen, the Ceska Zbrojovka Group (CZG), the Czech small-arms company that recently bought Colt, said, “Colt Canada is working closely with the Government of Canada to address any technical issues identified with some of the machine-guns it has delivered to the Canadian Armed Forces. CZG has full confidence in the quality of Colt Canada's products as well as its quality control system.”
The contract for the new guns was awarded to Colt Canada without competition under a federal program to support Canada's ability to produce military small arms domestically.
Colt Canada has been deemed the country's Small Arms Strategic Source and Centre of Excellence by the government.
Lamirande said the department has a quality-assurance representative assigned to Colt Canada. The role of that position is to ensure the overall process is being adhered to and expectations are being met by the company, she added. Colt Canada is also required to have a quality-management system that includes quality-control measures, Lamirande said.
“Every C6A1 that is issued by Colt Canada is fully tested by Colt Canada as per the statement of work within the contract to confirm that they are suitable for sale to Canada in accordance with the requirements of our contract,” she added.
Even with these systems in place, the defective machine-guns were still shipped to the military.
It wasn't until the guns were received by four different units that the problems were discovered by Canadian Forces personnel.