The Colt Model 933 is a compact

carbine A carbine ( or ) is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges. The smaller size and ligh ...

based on the AR-15,

M16 rifle The M16 (officially Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of assault rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States Armed Forces, United States military. The original M16 was a 5.56×45mm NATO, 5.56×45mm automatic ...

and

M4 Carbine The M4 carbine (officially Carbine, Caliber 5.56 mm, M4) is a 5.56×45mm NATO assault rifle developed in the United States during the 1980s. It is a shortened version of the M16A2 assault rifle. The M4 is extensively used by the US mi ...

produced by Colt starting in 1995. Due to its compact size, the short-barreled Colt 933 continues to be used by various US Special Forces and by some foreign forces, including Israeli Special Forces.

History

During the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, Colt would issue a carbine variant of the M16 known as the XM177, for close-quarters combat. These rifles would have the

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden stave (wood), staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers ...

length cut down to 10 inches (25 cm) which upset the

ballistics Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets and the like; the science or art of designing and acceler ...

, reduced its range and accuracy, and had considerable muzzle flash and blast. Colt would partially fix this by adding a large flash suppressor, although it did not help with the rifle's loud report. Colt would later raise the barrel length from 10 inches to 11.5 Inches in response to field testing, and the rifle would be adopted as the XM177E2, which was assigned to MACV-SOG units. This reduced the muzzle flash and blast issues that the 10-inch XM177E1 had, and would be produced until 1970. After the Vietnam War, Colt would mainly focus its attention to carbines with 14.5-inch (370 mm) or 20-inch (510 mm) barrels, but continued to make carbines with 11.5-inch (290 mm) barrels, which they called Commandos. The first of which was the Colt Model 733, which was created from whatever spare parts Colt had lying around. These became popular with police and special forces users such as

Delta Force The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D), also known as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), or within Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) as Task Force Green, is a Special operation forces, special operat ...

and USMC Force Recon. In 1995, Colt would introduce the Model 933 as the M16A2 Commando, after the success of the M4 Carbine. These modernized Commandos have a "flattop" receiver, with a removable carry handle and a MIL-STD-1913

Picatinny rail The 1913 rail (MIL-STD-1913 rail) is an American rail integration system designed by Richard Swan that provides a mounting platform for firearm accessories. It forms part of the NATO standard STANAG 2324 rail. It was originally used for mount ...

, and semi-and-fully automatic fire capability. The parts are also interchangeable with the longer M4 Carbine. Despite suffering from some of the same issues that plagued the earlier Commando carbines, the 933 still remains popular amongst some police and special forces users. Colt would later rebrand the 933 as the M4 Commando.

Users

* * * : Used by Special Anti-Terrorist Unit. * : Used by

LAPD The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

Metropolitan Division The National Hockey League's Metropolitan Division (often referred to simply as the "Metro Division") was formed in 2013 as one of the two divisions in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference as part of a league realignment. It is als ...

and USMC

Force Recon Force Reconnaissance (FORECON) are United States Marine Corps reconnaissance units that provide amphibious reconnaissance, deep ground reconnaissance, surveillance, battle-space shaping and limited scale raids in support of a Marine Expeditiona ...

References

{{Colt's Manufacturing Company Assault rifles of the United States Carbines Colt rifles