Canadian Military Reports Another Potential Issue With New LMGs

After hundreds of the Canadian military's new C6A1 light machine guns were sent back to Colt Canada earlier this year, National Defence says an armourer has found another potential issue with the weapons being delivered.

The C6A1 machine guns have seen repairs and recalls in the months after delivery to the military, with hundreds recalled in 2021 to fix gas systems and barrel nuts. Then, this past summer, more than 1,000 of the LMGs were recalled over issues with the feed channels. At that time, reports said this wasn't a big deal, as the affected parts were easily replaced by soldiers in the field.

The cost of these repairs is supposed to be negligible, with Colt Canada supplying the parts and military armourers performing the repairs. However, a new report from the Ottawa Citizen says another potential issue has come to light, now that these light machine guns are undergoing close scrutiny.

A report from the Citizen quotes a National Defence spokesperson as saying a weapons tech at CFB Petawawa found loose pins on seven of 18 machine guns delivered by Colt Canada. The problem has been traced back to a third-party supplier for Colt Canada, and now that the problem is known, Colt Canada will check for issues as it assembles and delivers the LMGs.

Granted, this latest issue sounds like a small sample size. However, if the third-party supplier was providing parts that weren't up to spec, no doubt the military will be carefully examining its C6A1 inventory in days to come, to make sure there haven't been other details missed.

What's next?

The ongoing issues with Colt Canada's production must be puzzling to many, as the company has enjoyed an excellent reputation for many years, leading to strong overseas sales for military firearms. And, it's not like Colt Canada is dealing with some new, unproven design. The C6A1 is based on the FN MAG, an air-cooled design that's been in production since the 1950s. So what's the problem? At this point, soldiers must be wondering what problems might arise next, given the long string of recalls and issues.

There is one good point: Of the 4,774 LMGs ordered from Colt Canada (for $129 million), almost 1,500 haven't been delivered yet. Given the lessons learned so far, you'd expect quality control to improve and the last third of the production run will hopefully be problem-free. Let's hope so, anyway; the country is millions of dollars into this procurement, and given the amount of time it's taking to replace a simple service pistol, we don't want to have to sort out another LMG.