Canadian soldiers are about to get the a new rifle as the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) announced that they have placed an order worth $6.5 million that will be devoted to procuring C20 272 rifles and spare parts. The maker of the C20 rifle will be Colt Canada. Previously Colt rifles were manufactured under license by Diemaco until the company was bought by Colt USA in 2005 and became Colt Canada Corporation.

According to Department of National Defence spokeswoman Andrée-Anne Poulin, the C20 will replace the C8 rifle for Canadian Forces sniper teams as reported by the National Post. The C20 rifle was selected by the Canadian Army in August 2019 for their Sniper System Project. Previously, the Colt Canada was awarded $2 million in February so that it can start putting together a production line to produce the C20 and provide rifles for further testing.

The C20 is a 7.62x51mm NATO semi-auto precision rifle that uses direct impingement system, it comes with Chrome-lined or non-Chrome-lined Barrel with other barrel lengths and calibres can be developed as required. It has an MRR-L Integrated Upper Receiver with 46 Slot Continuous MIL-STD-1913 Top Rail and 0 MOA or 20 MOA Integral Incline. Other features include M-Lok slots in the 3, 6 and 9 o'Clock Positions, Geissele SSA Dual-Stage Trigger, a licensed LMT monolithic upper receiver,  American Defense Bipod, and a LMT DMR Adjustable Buttstock.

Also part of the procurement is the OSS HX-QD 7.62mm suppressor with a Manta Defense suppressor cover. As far as optics is concerned, no optics has been selected yet for the rifle though in previous arms trade shows, the C20 was displayed with a Schmidt & Bender optic mounted and it looks like it is a 5-45x56 PM II High Power.

Colt Canada gives an overview on why the C20 was selected by the Canadian Armed Forces:

Colt Canada’s C20, 7.62 NATO, Semi-Automatic Sniper Weapon was developed to support the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) requirement for an Intermediate Sniper Weapon. In third party tests, the weapon provided better precision and reliability than other products available on the market and is now in the process of being adopted into the CAF small arms fleet. The C20 has been tested and proven to all relevant NATO D/14 standards for safety, functionality in extreme conditions, and endurance, having fired 8,000 rounds with no stoppages. In terms of precision, the C20 achieved an average of .66 MOA over 144 five round groups, collected throughout endurance testing. All groups were shot first round cold with suppressor, using 175gr Federal Gold Medal Match ammunition.

Colt Canada is expected to start delivering the C20 rifles in late 2020 and seen to complete delivery in March 2021.

Top photo: Colt C20 rifle undergoing testing (Canadian Army photo)