"There's no way they left the factory like that," says Phillip Hinckley, Colt's executive director of quality and engineering. "It does leave a major question mark in your head."
The M4s malfunctioned 882 times. The article doesn't say how many malfunctions the other weapons suffered.
Hinckley is making excuses for the poor quality he is palming off on the military. Maybe if he blames someone else he can keep his job.
I hate to say this but American Made doesn't always say quality anymore.
As has been noted: the M4 didn’t perform that much worse, and the tests were of dubious value.
(Rumor has it one reason the XM8 hasn’t been approved is it’s tendency to _melt_ under not-unreasonable conditions.)