FN America

FN America is the United States arm of the Belgian arms maker FN Herstal, and it exists because the US Army wanted its machine guns built on American soil. The Columbia, South Carolina plant opened in 1981 to take on military contracts, and it has since grown into one of the larger small arms factories in the country, serving all four services alongside police departments and the commercial market. The company is a subsidiary, so it carries no ticker of its own, and the parent group in Herstal dates to 1889.

Machine guns are the plant's signature. Columbia builds the M240 medium machine gun and its lighter variants, the M240B and the titanium-receiver M240L, and it also builds the M249 squad automatic weapon, a design the Army has kept ordering even while the Next Generation Squad Weapon rolls out. Awards land steadily rather than in headline lumps. A March 2026 order worth 9.9 million dollars covered more M240B guns for the Army and Navy, a July 2025 award added M240L guns, and separate Defense Logistics Agency work covers replacement barrels for both the M240 and M249. Carbine production is the other pillar. FN won its first US contract for M4A1 carbines in February 2013, has shared later M4 and M4A1 awards with Colt, and holds Foreign Military Sales work for M16A4 rifles valued at up to 383 million dollars. Special Operations Command buys a different set entirely, including the MK 46 and MK 48 light machine guns and the SCAR family, fielded as the 5.56mm Mk 16, the 7.62mm Mk 17 and the Mk 20 sniper support rifle.

Police work runs on a separate track. The FN 509 pistol in its MRD-LE duty configuration was selected by the Los Angeles Police Department in 2021, the first large American agency to issue a red dot equipped sidearm force wide, and smaller departments such as Waterbury in Connecticut have followed. The FN 303 less-lethal launcher, a .68 calibre design introduced in 2001 for crowd management, remains in service with agencies across the country and has been updated through the Mk2 and Tactical models. FN also sells suppressors and training courses into the same market.

The commercial catalogue leans on the same engineering. Buyers can get the FN 15 line of AR-pattern rifles, semi-automatic versions of the SCAR, the polymer-framed 509 and its variants, the 5.7x28mm Five-seveN and the ammunition that feeds it, and the FNX-45 Tactical in .45 ACP. Newer pistols including the Reflex, the 502, the 510 and the 545 broadened the range into micro-compact and large-bore calibres. That civilian side matters commercially, since military orders arrive in cycles while the retail business runs year round. Columbia does the work either way. Ammunition is part of the offer as well, since the 5.7x28mm cartridge that feeds the Five-seveN and the P90 pattern weapons has no other mainstream source. Suppressors and factory training courses for armourers and operators complete a line-up aimed at all three customer groups.