Yesterday when I wrote why the Australian military chose AUG as the standard assault rifle, I said that originally the Australian side hoped to obtain Colt authorization and then produce the M16A2 by itself, but because Colt lost the Us order at that time, it wanted the Australian side to purchase M16A2 instead of authorizing production. However, the Australian side did not compromise, and eventually Australia obtained the production license of AUG from Steyr, and Colt also lost a considerable licensing fee.
Then there were friends in the comments section who wanted me to talk about how Colt lost the AMERICAN order at that time, so I started talking about Colt's death over the years.
Let's first briefly summarize the life of Colt
In the 1830s, Samuel Colt started his business with revolvers, but the initial market response was not good, until the 1850s they introduced the concept of interchangeable parts and excellent German technicians, only to open the market with excellent quality revolvers, and then with the start of the American Civil War, Colt entered a golden period of development.
(Colt's famous slogan: God created mankind, Colt made them equal)
After the end of the Civil War, Colt's reputation spread throughout North America, just as the Westward Expansion Movement of the United States was also in full swing, and the Colt Wheel, an artifact that robbed houses, pickpocketed cars and looted Goods, and robbed Indian territory, quickly gained a foothold in the three circles of military and civilian police. By the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Colt had become one of the strongest arms dealers in North America, especially after John Moses Browning joined and designed the M1911 pistol, and Colt's pistol empire ushered in its most glorious period.
After the end of World War I, Colt during the Great Depression also fell into a trough, strikes, declining spending power, natural disasters and other factors put Colt in trouble, but after the start of World War II, a large number of orders made Colt revived with blood. But at this time, Colt's bright appearance already had internal wounds of backward manufacturing methods and employee dissatisfaction.
After World War II, Colt was in a huge financial difficulty after the military orders were reduced, and the Orders of the Korean War were limited enough to save Colt. Finally, in 1955, Colt merged with a start-up, just as Western movies were popular in the United States, Colt produced the Colt Python Wheel, and also began to take the cold rice nostalgic route of some old revolvers.
(Colt Python, .357 caliber, this gun is estimated to be very influential to everyone, a frequent visitor in film and television game works)
In 1959, Colt bought the ar15 patent from Amalette, and with the escalation of the Vietnam War, AR15 successfully entered the US army, Colt ushered in the second spring, with the M16 in the Vietnam War good reputation, the world began to rush. It was also during this period that Colt made a wrong marketing strategy, they felt that the rifle only needed to seize the military market, and the pistol whether it was the M1911A1 or its classic revolver series was dominating the market.
In 1985, a wave of strikes swept through the United States. Colt naturally could not escape, especially the internal injuries of backward manufacturing methods and poor staff management that accompanied the strike. The strike lasted for 8 months, and when it stabilized, less than 1/5 of the old employees were left, and the addition of a large number of new employees and the forced increase in salaries led to a high price difference in the price of the Colt M16A2, which also led to the 1988 US military bidding for the M16A2, they gave the order to the Belgian FN (Colt quoted $477.5) for $420.
(Colt strikes, sign says Colt violated labor law)
You think you lost your military rifle order?
In the 1980s, a number of pistols that were later called "Wonder nine" (Miracle 9mm) began to be popular on the market, which was 9mm caliber, double-row large-capacity magazines, and double-action shots. Representatives are such as Glock 17, CZ75, P226, Beretta 92. These 9mm automatic pistols are high capacity, lightweight, recoil controllable, more responsive to emergency fire, and cheaper. So it quickly seized a large number of reel markets, and the M1911A1 pistol, although classic, is a single-action shot, single-row low-capacity magazine and heavy old guy, classic to classic, but compared with the Wonder Nine is a bit outdated. At this point, Colt lost military orders, and the position of pistol overlord was not guaranteed, so the entire empire began to collapse. The capitalists had a meeting, and then they sold Colt...
Simply put, Colt changed bosses in the late '80s. Learning from their previous pistols, they introduced two products, the Double Eagle with a double/single-action shot and a polymer/aluminum body frame, the dual/single-action shot, and the Colt 2000 with a 15-round 9mm double-row magazine
But Colt's two internal injuries still exist, these two pistols on the one hand is poor quality control, accuracy is very bad, and marketing is also very bad, so by 1992 Colt entered bankruptcy protection, during this period they learned the lessons of internal injuries, the introduction of new tools and management models, it can be said that at this time Colt AR15 rifle did slightly improve its reputation, but with the end of the Cold War and the frequent occurrence of Shootings in the United States, it led to the sales of Colt in the 90s.
In 1994, Colt's early years and the U.S. military's M4 carbine project finally landed, and from 1996 onwards, it regained a large number of military orders, and by 1999, the retired U.S. military lieutenant general served as CEO of Colt. In the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s, Colt survived on the M4, but the civilian market was eroded by other weapons factories because the AR15 patent protection period had long passed, and the pistol was already dried up.
In 2007, Colt's M4, HK416, SCAR and XM8 conducted a reliability test and ranked at the bottom. At the same time, the news that the US military in the Middle East complained about the poor reliability of the M4 flew up. Finally, in 2013, the U.S. military decided to stop the M4 contract with Colt and lost the order to the Belgian FN.
(FN M4A1 receiver inscription)
Then in 2015, Colt filed for bankruptcy protection again... Then he survived by frying a pistol cold rice, and in February this year (it seems that last week) the Czech CZ company announced the acquisition of Colt...
How to say, Colt, you said that there are elements of bad luck along the way, such as the Great Depression, the general strike, the shootings, and the end of the Cold War. But in the same way, they started from the innovation of the production model, but in the second half of the 20th century, they did not think of making progress, did not use new tools, and the application of new materials lagged behind (ar15's cast aluminum was still Amalette's idea, and Colt had nothing to do with It), and the most important thing was to hold the M1911 and the revolver and feel that a trick was eaten all over the world, and the result was that it was reduced from king to bronze under the squeeze of other gun factories.