Incredible News for Montana Gun Manufacturer After US Army Award

Earlier this year from the SHOT Show in Vegas, we told you about how a Montana company was a finalist in a major competition for the US Army. Here's the update: they won. And, they're now looking to manufacture this weapon right here in Montana. 

Michael Merino is the founder of Olympus Arms in Helena, Montana. He grew up on a ranch near Butte. Merino is also the President of Mars, Inc- a firearms research and development company based in Montana. He teamed up with Barrett to develop a next-generation 30mm support rifle.

That rifle just won the US Army's PGS X Tech Competition, and now Merino says he plans to manufacture the gun in Helena. 

Merino: "So what we've decided to do is that we are going to build the manufacturing of this system, in the event that we're selected by the army to field to the soldiers, we're going to build that manufacturing center and the facility here in Montana. And so that means high paying jobs. It means good industry based here in our state that we love, and we're really grateful for that, and looking forward to that. So winning X Tech gives us tremendous credibility with the Army. It gives us the opportunity to continue to compete. There's two more competitions we need to go through, and there's big money to support our research finally, and then if we are awarded that final contract we can build these systems right here in Montana, so we're really excited about that."

Merino kicks off the podcast featured below:

Here's more background from our chat with Merino back in January: 

Two years ago they had the Best in Show gun at the SHOT Show...check out what Helena, Montana's Olympus Arms is offering up now.

If you served as an Army Infantryman you might remember the 203. The 203 is basically a single shot grenade launcher that was attached to a rifle.

Imagine a 203 on steroids that can not only hit area targets, but it can hit point targets like shooting the grenade through a window, or even taking down drones. That is what Mike Merino, the founder & CEO of Olympus Arms in Helena was showing off at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas this year (featured in the top left corner of the photo above).

Merino is also the President of Mars, Inc- a firearms research and development company based in Montana. He teamed up with Barrett to develop a next-generation 30mm support rifle.

Mike Merino: "What the army wants is a grenade launcher that can compete with China's and Russia's grenade launchers. Right now, they have much more deadly grenade launchers than we do. We have the M203, or the M320, and they can over match us, and it's very, very dangerous, right? So we don't want our adversaries to have the better weapons. That's kind of the whole point. I'm in this business now.

Mars and Barrett are now a finalist in the PGS X tech competition. So, if you went to their SHOT Show booth in Vegas, what would you have seen? Here's a little of our Q&A. 

Mike Merino: What you're going to see is a 30 millimeter semi automatic magazine fed recoilless grenade rifle.

Aaron Flint: Awesome.

Mike Merino: It is. It is.

Aaron Flint: Like a hand carried MK-19

Mike Merino: Yes, exactly. I tell people it's a handheld howitzer. And it is the most lethal shoulder fired weapon ever designed. It is so powerful. So what it does is it shoots 30 millimeter air bursting grenades, and it has a range of zero to 600 meters. It's counter drone. It's counter defilade. You could shoot one of these rounds in through a window of a room full of bad guys and end the conversation, take out a machine gun bunker with a single shot...

Aaron Flint: So it's not just an area target. It can be that precise.

Mike Merino: It is point precision. You could shoot this towards a drone. It won't go off until it gets close enough to a drone to go off. So it is so, so powerful.

Here's a video: