Tag Archives: Tirailleurs Sénégalais

The echos of the old Republic

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Senegal– a traditional French ally who provided the Republic the use of the famed Tirailleurs Sénégalais for twin World Wars as well as Algeria and Vietnam Indochina– produced some of the most reliable of French colonial troops for generations. These hardy Senegalese riflemen were stationed throughout overseas France to include North Africa, where their descendants endure in their own unique enclaves.

Here’s a look at one such group in Lebanon today, where the riflemen landed in 1919 in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire’s implosion, and a century later their legacy remains.

Colt lands $57M contract to supply overseas allies with M4 rifles

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Lot of these bad boys headed overseas as FMS…

Connecticut-based Colt’s Manufacturing last week was awarded a significant Pentagon security assistance contract.

The $57.72 million firm-fixed-price contract announced by the U.S. Army on Thursday covers delivery of up to 10,000 M4 and M4A1 5.56mm carbine rifles. The award, issued through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s Foreign Military Sales program, is for guns intended for Jordan, Morocco, Afghanistan, Senegal, Tunisia, and Pakistan. The way the announcement is written it sounds like it is for just 10K rifles, but I think it is actually for 10K to each end-user, or else the math is really off ($5700 for an M4? C’mon…)

I also found the fact that Senegal– a traditional French ally who provided the Republic the use of the famed Tirailleurs Sénégalais for twin World Wars as well as Algeria and Vietnam Indochina– is getting M4s to be interesting. While some Senegalese units have HK G3s and Tavors (spec ops guys), they have long fielded dated French weapons. To note: these old MAS 36 rifles and MAT-49 SMGS still in service in 2009:

More on the Colt contract in my column at Guns.com.