Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
by Royce de Melo
I was sitting in my hotel room in London in early 2016, catching up on business while attending a discreet security and law enforcement event. I was following up on a shipment of US Ordnance M60E6 Light Machine Guns (LMGs) that had gone to Canada. Little did I know, this also would offer the missed opportunity for a good linguistic joke. Hear me out.
There had been a lot of time, waiting, effort, and work before these M60E6s were finally delivered to a Canadian Armed Forces base for testing. Government and Department of National Defence (DND) procurements can be the most frustrating and painfully slow matters to deal with.
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Canada had issued an Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) in 2012 for 7.62×51 calibre LMGs, with some very specific Canadian specifications. The ACAN, over time, evolved into a full Request for Proposal (RFP). Canada has to be different; others generally call these an RFQ, a Request for Quotation (the fact that it took from 2012 to 2016 to offer, bid and deliver M60s for testing shows how needlessly and insanely slow the entire process can be).
Only one other renowned company submitted a tender for their LMG product, and that was Colt Canada for their 7.62×51 version of the Minimi LMG.
Some of the specifications were unique. For example, Canada specified a maximum barrel length of 51 cm (20 inches), including the flash hider and barrel extension. In contrast, the standard barrel length would be 22 inches. And it wasn’t just that; other things needed some tweaking and alterations here and there on the M60E6 to fit the Canuck specs.
Naturally, I was glad to hear that the M60E6 LMG’s had finally been delivered to Canada for testing after years of waiting.
Photo courtesy, US Ordnance
Out of curiosity, I asked US Ordnance’s Steve Helzer, “Now that US Ordnance has made so many alterations to the E6 to fit the Canuck specs, do you have a new designation or name for this latest version? …M60 E7? M60 CA1? M60 Northern Lights LMG?”
Here’s where the missed opportunity for the linguistic joke comes in.
“Perhaps the ‘M60 “eh” 7’,” he said.
For those who are not familiar, Canadians are linguistically recognized for often ending their sentences and questions with “eh” in a versatile manner. A statement can seek affirmation or confirmation by becoming a question, as in “The Blue Jays lost last night, eh?” The “eh” is also used by French Canadians speaking in English.
Could you imagine these M60s delivered to Canada and stamped with ‘M60″eh”7‘ or simply “M60-eh.”‘
I could see it, some Canadian machine gunner testing the system and saying, “This is the M60″eh”,” or some soldier asking a comrade, “Could you give me that M60″eh”, the one over there, eh?
The M60E6 variation has an NSN (National Stock Number), and the parts are NSN codified. An NSN is a US government and NATO 13-digit number code used for the supply and procurement of standardized items.
Unfortunately, as Helzer put it, the Canadian tweaks on the M60E6 were not significant enough to warrant a model change.
Had the DND contracted and procured the M60E6 from US Ordnance, the Canadian Armed Forces would have given the LMG its own name. The designation would likely have been a “C” and a number. For example, the FN MAG, a Medium Machine Gun, a GPMG (e.g., the M240 used in the US), in Canada, are designated as the C6. The Minimi 5.56×45 LMG version is the C9.
After a government cockup during the bidding process, the project for the procurement came to a halt. We were told at that time that a new tender would be released within a year or so. We wondered why they could not just continue with the testing from where they left off instead of going through a whole new tendering process.
It’s been almost 10 years since the testing, and Canada has not published a new RFP nor ordered any new LMGs. Bureaucracy, expense, time, effort, and work have come to naught, while the Canadian Armed Forces, apparently, still today, and more than ever, require new LMGs, GPMGs, and many other equipment.
At least the Canadian Armed Forces owns a handful of M60E6s that are ready for use as needed. But, damn, what we would have given to have seen those M60 light machine guns stamped “M60″eh.”
That would have been perfect, eh?
Royce de Melo is a Canadian analyst and security and defense consultant mainly covering the Middle East and Africa.
