I don't think some of you understand what is included in the total procurement price. It is not just a rifle and the case. It includes spare parts, tooling for the weapons techs to repair, but most of all it will include the technical specifications which allow DND to "own" the design. It will also likely include at least one life cycle management run, that is the rebuild and refit ofthe rifles at a specific point in the weapons life. That is normally included in the costing of the rifle. I can guarantee that the replacement cost of the rifle itself is not $6K but more likely in the price range we would expect. The same goes for just about everything the military buys, it is not a one off cost but rather the life cycle (10, 20 or 30 years) of service. When we purchased the C7 series of rifles, they included rebuilds as part of the life cycle, the same for the radios we use.
So make sure you understand what the costs truly are before you go off half cocked. Buying a rifle for $900 then not being able to repair it makes no sense to the military. Weapons have life cycles measured in decades.
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