New machine-gun barrel to drive growth of U.S. Ordnance

U.S. Ordnance, a weapons manufacturer headquartered at Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, has produced a revamped version of the .50-caliber machine gun that company executives believe could become the military standard throughout the world.

The company's new quick-change barrel system allows soldiers to switch an overheated barrel in the heavy-duty .50-caliber machine gun for a cooler barrel in as little as 15 seconds. The process formerly took as long as several minutes on average an unacceptable delay during a firefight, company president Curtis Debord says.

"This quick-change barrel system is what the world has been waiting for," he says. "Everybody loves the M2 .50-caliber machine gun; it is the finest heavy machine gun in the world. Its only drawback was changing the barrel."

The potential for the new barrel system could propel growth for many years, Debord says. U.S. Ordnance has begun testing the new barrel with branches of the U.S. Armed Forces and many foreign governments as well.

Earlier this year the company had an initial production run of 300 machine guns with the new barrel system and sold 240 of them to Columbia before production was even completed.

U.S. Ordnance invested several million dollars in specialty machining equipment to produce its new barrel syste. Time from initial design to finished production was just eight months.

U.S. Ordnance has three worldwide competitors in weaponry manufacturing: Manroy Engineering in England; FN Herstal in Belgium; and General Dynamics of Virginia. However, none of the competitors offers a barrel system with such short down times, Debord says.

The new barrel simply screws into place via a handle and has been manufactured to fit proper firing specifications.

"I think it is really going to put us on the world map," Debord says. "This system makes the .50-caliber everything everyone has wanted it to be. We believe that our .50-caliber will be the world standard, and it is going to be many, many years of work for U.S. Ordnance and hundreds of millions of dollars."

Although Debord designed the system, head engineer Rob Brown put it into reality but not without some restless nights where Brown pondered production problems.

"At first I thought he was crazy," Brown says, laughing. "I was like, I don't think I can do that. But we started looking at the technology of the machines on the market, and we got a piece of equipment that could handle it.

"There were some complicated aspects of it," Brown adds. "It is still absorbing on me, what I accomplished. But I just did my job. Every time we came to a hurdle we all came together. The biggest thing that saved us was the new machining equipment. It wouldn't be financially feasible to build this system if we had conventional machinery."

U.S. Ordnance had a bountiful year in 2009 due to some large government contracts for weaponry that allowed Debord to pay off the loans on his two-year old building and millions of dollars worth of production equipment as well.

The company occupies 68,000-square-feet at Tahoe Reno Industrial and has plans to add an additional 18,000 to 24,000 with a two-story expansion. The company's 10-acre lot was declared a foreign trade zone, which allows U.S. Ordnance to further increase its revenues by importing machine guns, cannons and mortars from foreign governments to resell to the U.S. government for training purposes.

U.S. Ordnance also has eliminated many of its subcontractors by investing in new machinery such as screw, cryogenic and heat-treatment manufacturing machinery. The investments drastically reduced production times and allow U.S. Ordnance to better control inventory and costs.

"We are trying to bring everything we can into Nevada," Debord says.

U.S. Ordnance also has been selling its weaponry in increasing numbers to foreign governments. Defense shows in countries such as Abu Dhabi, Malaysia, Thailand, and France resulted in lucrative contracts. It also has sold guns in Mexico, Peru, Panama, and Columbia, and is bidding contracts in Israel.

"While everyone else was pursuing the U.S. government only and neglecting the foreign market, we pursued the foreign market and it's really started to pay off for us," Debord says.