
Mark Serbu, founder and president of Tampa-based Serbu Arms, said he is surprised SOCom is considering looking for manufacturers that would make Russian-designed weapons here. "They are looking for capabilities more so than nailing down a number, so we will probably end up responding." "At the end of the day, is the juice worth the squeeze?" he asked. Frazee said he may respond to SOCom's solicitation, which he learned about from the Tampa Bay Times. Still, a government contract would increase the appeal for manufacturers because it would guarantee sales.

"It is cheaper to lay hands on a couple containers of foreign AK-47s from overseas than manufacturing them and then exporting them," Frazee said. manufacturers in trying to provide the weapons as cheaply as they're available from manufacturers in Russia, China, Bulgaria and elsewhere. Greg Frazee, CEO of the Tampa-based Trident Arms, agreed there would be a number of hurdles for U.S. Bush's administration, for example, foreign-made weapons like AK-47s were going for just $100 apiece. In a major small arms purchase during President George W. manufacturers who are interested in producing the weapons, Karp said. The economics might make it hard for SOCom to find U.S. Between 70 million to 150 million of the weapons are in use around the world, said Aaron Karp, a senior lecturer at Old Dominion University in Virginia and senior consultant with the Small Arms Survey, a nonprofit organization that monitors the international arms business.Įstimates of the global count of other weapons in the SOCom solicitation are virtually impossible to make, Karp said. The AK-47 was designed to be produced quickly and cheaply. CentCom, also based at MacDill, has overall control of U.S. SOCom, tasked with training and equipping commandos and synchronizing the war on terror, provides weapons to allies at the behest of headquarters commands like U.S. The command gets some of the weapons from contractors buying them through approved sources around the world.

Allen said SOCom won't know for certain about things like availability, quality and price until it asks. manufacturers could compete with foreign companies, which already make the weapons cheaply. Local gunmakers contacted by the Tampa Bay Times questioned how U.S.
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Matt Allen, a spokesman for the command.Īllen said "a U.S.-based source would be a good use of taxpayer funds, while also delivering the weapons our partners not only need to fight extremists, but also the ones they know how to use, know how to fix and have the supplies in their regions to maintain." manufacturers, SOCom has taxpayers in mind as well as its overseas allies, said Lt. This includes Russian-designed guns like the AK-47 and other similar assault rifles, as well as sniper rifles like the Dragunov, light machine guns like the PKM, and heavy machine guns like the DShK and the KPV. Last month, the command, based at MacDill Air Force Base, sent out a market research request regarding what it calls "non-standard weapons."
