Old ad promoting the Ultimax 100 LMG's low recoil

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Able-Quantity-1879@reddit

Why the focus on special forces? I want to sell my stuff to the bigger regular units that have bigger money and contracts. We should have adopted the Ulti as our SAW- Sullivan understands requirements and delivers.

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BallisticRicehat666@reddit

Usually an easier task than focusing on big contracts, because there’s more leeway with arms used by special forces so more willing to try things out. Focusing too much on big contracts is what killed initially killed colt and was/is killing HK. Gotta have a good balance in small contracts/civilian sales and your big contracts, I’m sure they tried to secure the big ones as well but probably found more success in arming specialty groups so they leaned into that

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CopperAndLead@reddit

Yep! And, big contracts don’t come up all that often.

But, a lot of specialty organizations are able to buy new pieces of equipment if they provide a greater value or benefit.

Like, you might make an LMG that’s 10% better than an M249, but it may not be worth it for the Army to replace every single M249, replace all of the spare parts, replace all of the manuals, etc. Then, they have to retrain every gunner, every armorer, every assistant gunner, every squad leader, every small arms repairman, every major repair specialist, every gunnery instructor, etc.

Adopting a new gun on the scale of an army is a gigantic deal. Special forces use is also usually a way to introduce a new firearm to an army.

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The_First_Curse_@reddit

Like, you might make an LMG that’s 10% better than an M249, but it may not be worth it for the Army to replace every single M249, replace all of the spare parts, replace all of the manuals, etc. Then, they have to retrain every gunner, every armorer, every assistant gunner, every squad leader, every small arms repairman, every major repair specialist, every gunnery instructor, etc.

Or you can be American and choose an assault rifle instead of a light machine gun for whatever dumbass reason.

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CopperAndLead@reddit

Is this about the USMC M27 IAR thing?

Yeah, that’s an odd decision. I almost kind of understand the logic- having somebody with a job of “providing supporting fire” but having a less complex weapon system that shares a manual of arms with the standard infantry carbine- kind of like the AKM and RPK.

But also…. Yeah, it’s certainly one of the decisions of all times.

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The_First_Curse_@reddit

Yeah that. And the RPK at least had a larger magazine right?

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CopperAndLead@reddit

So, I work in a job where I sell firearms to government and police agencies in several states.

The large contracts are fantastic. If I can get the major metropolitan PD to adopt my company’s rifles, that’s outstanding. However, those contracts don’t come up often and when they do they are highly competitive and are often decided by people looking at factors other than the rifles themselves.

Meanwhile, I still need to pay rent and justify my existence.

Maybe Big City PD is using a different brand, but Big City PD SWAT might want something specialized that we offer that the competition doesn’t offer. Or, maybe Small Town PD wants rifles, and Competing Brand’s sales reps are too busy to meet with Small Town PD’s officers, so I can get that smaller sale instead, and it gets the guns out there.

If you just chase the big contracts, you’ll probably never sell anything, and even then you might lose that big contract later. But, if you diversify your customer base, you’re more likely to have a consistent stream of income.

Now, if Big City PD says, “Hey, we need rifles, you’re up,” they become a priority because of their size, but I’m still also going to make sure that I’m paying attention to the smaller departments and contracts as well.

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Able-Quantity-1879@reddit

A sure-fire way to go out of business in the firearm and manufacturing business is focusing on boutique sales. I'd rather be a Sochiro Honda than an Enzo Ferrari because he made more money and his influence was greater.

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KeeganY_SR-UVB76@reddit

Equipment usually trickles down from SF to regular units over the course of a few decades. Essentially a long-term trial run before full adoption.

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The_First_Curse_@reddit

The dumbass American military: "Yeah that's cool and all but we want an assault rifle for our dedicated Machine Gunner instead."

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Aids649stoptakingit@reddit

I think most people in sg wld get a kick seeing this ad, i mean i would (rip to the ultimax, you will be missed)

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theye1@reddit

I'm gonna be honest, the idea of advertising a military unit weapon in a magazine is weird to me. It's not that it's a gun ad—I get it—and it's still less weird than America's pharma ads, but who is it for? I mean, buying weapons for a military is a process, even in Asian dictatorships, and the point of ads is to influence the purchaser, who is almost always a political figure.

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Chinchiller92@reddit

Well you don't know what magazine it was advertised in, maybe it was Dictators' ships monthly, every self respecting autocrats favourite yachting magazine?

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MintiestFresh@reddit

its rad as hell though

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theye1@reddit

I'm gonna be honest, the idea of advertising a military unit weapon in a magazine is weird to me. It's not that it's a gun ad—I get it—and it's still less weird than America's pharma ads, but who is it for? I mean, buying weapons for a military is a process, even in Asian dictatorships, and the point of ads is to influence the purchaser, who is almost always a political figure

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