US Military Issue Fixed Blade

chevyrulez1

chevyrulez1

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I have always had an interest in what knives are being procured / used / issued by our military. Not from a point of view that these items are necessarily better but from more of a historical / informational point of view.
Looks like NSN 1095-01-466-8569 has been purchased a lot in the last few years (a little over 30,000 in the last couple of years according to the demand history available online)
This knife was the Benchmade Nimravus, 140SBK and 141SBK.. Alternate part numbers for this NSN were the Gerber 22-01145DS and the Masters of Defense CQD MARK VI

The question I have is that these knives look like they are all discontinued?? So are they still making them on demand for the military and just not selling to civilians, or has the Government started procuring something else?

Anyone who has access to the Uncle Sam procurement system that can shed light on this?
 
tltt said:
https://www.highergov.com/nsn/1095014668569/#overview .

You can dig around there for some interesting reading. Benchmade's contracts ran out in 2022. Hogue's on the list for their EX-F01 fixed blade.

Universal Spartan -https://universalspartan.com/product-category/national-stock-number-items/ has the contract now, not sure what model knife they're supplying.,
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info, looks like it must be a variant of one of the Hogue fixed blades that they are purchasing now.
This is exactly what I was looking for. Although to Sidehill Gouger's point, they probably will not be purchasing too much going forward unless they start gearing up for future hostilities. Plus, who knows what they have sitting around in inventory in warehouses.
 
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) set out the specifications. NSN 1095 01 1466 8569 is a knife that fits the following definition, per the contract: Knife, combat. High carbon steel fixed blade, blade thk.12-.175 in, tanto style,1/2 serration on blade,9.400 nominal length overall. 4.500 in. Blade length, Nimravus sheath.

The contract has been open for bid as required since 2018. It's been used 23 times with quantities running from 8 to 1950 with multiple purchases in multiple years. The DLA has a set amount of funds for the contract, and depending on who wins the bid that's who fills the orders. The last open bidding was closed 4 DEC 2023. 3449 knives were delivered in six orders in 2021, 6106 in 2022, and 1213 in 2023.

Hogue, Fiskars, and Benchmade are "approved suppliers". Fiskars supplied 130 knives under this NSN in 2019. Benchmade supplied 8 (140SBK) in 2018. Hogue never supplied direct to the DLA. The last two years (2021-2022) the orders were filled by (the contract was awarded to) companies named Universal Spartan and Tactical & Survival Specialties. It is reasonable to assume they filled the contract with knives made by an approved supplier.

DLA contracts vary in length and volume, but are usually based on the funds allocated, and the open bidder is then to deliver the products as requisitioned within the timeframe of the contract. None of the contracts for this NSN specify a specific total number to be purchased, although minimums (for the length of the contract) are specified.

So, short and dirty, the DLA looks at what they have in stock vs. what they've been asked to provide. Then they provide a projection of requirements (guess) for the next fiscal year (FY). This is added to the requested budget. In the meantime DLA sets out a contract to suppliers, and that has an estimate of how much they can spend. The suppliers figure out if they can provide, and place bids in order to win the contract. The contract is awarded after the closing time for bids is met, usually to the lowest bidder. The budget goes up and is combined with all the other agency budgets and this gets adjusted multiple times. The final gets sent to Congress, who allocate the funds, after more adjustment. Once funds are approved (the budget is approved) then DLA orders to fill their requests based on the revised amount of funds and priority of the requirement. The only number that counts is how much (in funds) does each line item actually have to work with. In the meantime DLA sets out a contract to suppliers, and that has an estimate of how much they can spend. The suppliers figure out if they can provide, and place bids in order to win the contract. The contract is awarded after the closing time for bids is met, usually to the lowest bidder. Whoever hold the contract to supply get an order (or multiples) over the length of the contract to provide at the price they bid.

My guess is that these are low priority and, since all the current funding is under a "continuing resolution", this is not going to be a big year of purchase of this line item.
 
Money has dried up for purchases of knives. Also need to remember that a lot of knives were purchased by Units using "Discretionary Funds". A unit on McChord Air Force Base (now Joint Base Lewis McChord) bought folders from Custom knife maker Todd Begg, who at that time lived in Spanaway, WA. Saw a bunch of different knifes being carried by men and women in Kuwait and Afghanistan, bought by their units, not necessarily with a NSN. John
 
Spyderco has a NSN. So does Boker. My local army surplus has both. New in the package.

As for Benchmade. You use to be able to find issued and used at the pawnshop. Rare find at the surplus.

M9 bayonets used to be common. Not no more.
 
Yeah, I think the majority of purchased / issued knives in both folder and fixed blade variety came from either Benchmade, Gerber, or Ontario in recent years.
Now that Ontario is closed, I am wondering who will fill the gaps going forward since they supplied the majority of the Bayonets, ASEK knives, etc. (I think)
They will come up with something I am sure, they used to by a ton of the old Camillus Demo knives, but pliers based multitools kind of made them obsolete (not to mention Camillus went away).
It will be interesting to see what the future holds and how things change over time.
 
Just because something has an NSN does not mean that it was military issue. The DLA is the only contracting agency for "issue" items; they provide everything from beans to bullets. Issue items are part of the units Military Table of Organization and Equipment (MTOE).

Individual units (at every level) have discretionary funds they can use to purchase needed items which are then provided to the service members. That is not the same as having a gov't contract, and they are not part of the units official equipment. You can find all kinds of knives for sale by AAFES in the PX/BX system, for sale to anyone with funds; they have NSNs, but are not issue items.

To put knife purchases by the DLA in perspective, the last two years total purchases of NSN 1095 01 1466 8569 are considerably less than the cost of a single 155 HE round.
 
I have another question concerning this topic, I am seeing everywhere online that the Cold Steel SRK is issued to all Navy Seals when they enter BUDS. Searching online, I do not see where the SRK has ever been issued a NSN number. So the question is, do they have ways of buying knives (or other equipment) without going through the normal purchasing procedures? Where do they get the SRK's from? If they are buying / using stuff that doesn't have an NSN assigned, then it is truly impossible to know what is used /issued by the military. Does anyone have any ideas on this?
 
Perhaps the NSN number is old enough and the Mil has enough in stock that the number never made it to the internet age? There's enough evidence from SEALs that the knife is/was issued. There is also mention that many were old stock Carbon V. Later the Seal Pup was worked in.

Might even be a mistake in cataloging -

Cold Steel does have some interesting NSNs, and some of those NSNs have mistakes. For instance, they have Cold Steel listed as the maker for some SOG products.

https://www.parttarget.com/Cold-Steel-Inc_nsn-parts.html/-91A065D0-F95B-42D2-8B64-C4297A309347 .

----------------------------------------

One of the funnier NSNs I saw was for the Buck 120 -

https://www.wbparts.com/rfq/7340-01-487-6033.html .

Didn't expect to see that.
 
chevyrulez1 said:
I have another question concerning this topic, I am seeing everywhere online that the Cold Steel SRK is issued to all Navy Seals when they enter BUDS. Searching online, I do not see where the SRK has ever been issued a NSN number. So the question is, do they have ways of buying knives (or other equipment) without going through the normal purchasing procedures? Where do they get the SRK's from? If they are buying / using stuff that doesn't have an NSN assigned, then it is truly impossible to know what is used /issued by the military. Does anyone have any ideas on this?
Click to expand...



.... @ the 6.40min mark., so yes. Not sure exactly but I have seen more than a few things that are "unit level" purchase out here and in he US that don't get an NSN.
 
Sometimes, the military come up with some new requirements for whatever mission or reason. Then the suppliers can applies whatever items meeting the requirements, the item will get an assigned an NSN. It only means that the paper works is done, so it can be ordered through the logistic system. It doesn't mean anyone get or use them.

Steel Will "Adept" has NSN number 1095-01-645-9249 tanto and 1095-01-645-9251 dagger, I don't think many people here even know or remember the brand. They mirror the Eickhorn-Solingen KM series issued to Nato forces.

If things are bought using unit own allocated fund for whatever they need instead of going through the logistic chain, they won't get any NSN.

Another thing, some products live entirely on big contract. Like in the 10k unit, might get lower quality than what you get from the store. When they make such big order, customer service is not a thing, they become more or less expendable, you will just get a new one if the previous break. Since they get more leekway on quality, they can lower the price, and cutting corner here and there is common. Not that they are bad since they still meet the requirements.

The moment the contract are done, there is little to gain from commercial market since the they have to work on customer service and supply, which in turn hike the price.
 
I guess the piece I was missing was the unit level purchases that don't go through the normal government procurement process. I knew from tons of testimony that seals issued the SRK, but didn't understand how they got them without a NSN. They probably have a credit card where they can order whatever they want, so that makes sense now.
 
chevyrulez1 said:
I guess the piece I was missing was the unit level purchases that don't go through the normal government procurement process. I knew from tons of testimony that seals issued the SRK, but didn't understand how they got them without a NSN. They probably have a credit card where they can order whatever they want, so that makes sense now.
Click to expand...
Special Forces usually gets many things in the supply without special procurement, despite going through the supply chain, but different. Like how the first few batches of CAR-15 don't even have product code in Colt system, or the 1990s Delta SR-25 short barrel sniper rifle. This is not limited to the US nor NATO.

A while ago, I checked on the US Navy equipment spending paper, unclassified and available on to the public on their websites. I don't remember which fiscal year nor the exact items. Regardless, on the paper, there is around 50 customized 7.62 rifles (HK I believe, variant of HK417) and some non standard body armor, both of them have blank in their NSN. One can only guess where they go. :rolleyes:

On the procurement process subject, if you are interested in other military gears, like boots, since 2018, Canadian armed forces give what we called "BootForgen", everyone get 340CA$ to buy whatever boots you want with approval from the unit instead of the higher up going through paper work to procure everything and get complaints about blisters. We still get issue 2 pairs of essential boots, but good luck guessing what kind of boot we actually use.
 
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