the Swiss Army awards contracts each year to produce X number of knives.
Half that number are made by Victorinox. The other half are made by Wenger.
So if anything happens to stop production at the one plant, the other company can gear up and produce extra to meet the demand.
Same idea as with the 45 autos and MI carbines during World War 2.
The Marine Fighting/Utility knife was evidently initially provided to units bearing the Ka-bar logo and hence became known as the "Kabar". Truth is, way I hear it, Camillus ended up turning out many more of the knives that were actually issued than did Ka-bar.