US Military There seems to be some debate about whether the US military is guilty of NIH or not I ve trimmed down this massive essay and tried to make the section a bit more balanced partly because the info on the Harrier is not right at all partly because there is at least some doubt as to whether the military is guilty or not and partly because its just too damned long But here is the complete section The U S purchased the Krag J rgensen rifle in the 1890s over great protest from U S manufactures Its replacement the M1903 Springfield used a Mauser locking bolt which the U S paid to license The Luger competed in trials in the early 1900s for a automatic pistol resulting in the famed American Eagle Lugers and was a lead contender though their New York office lost the paperwork for further tests The competition ended up finishing later resulting the M1911 In WW1 the U S purchased many French and British made machine guns such as the Hotchkiss machine gun They also made huge numbers of M1917 Enfield rifles a British developed design A great many modern firearms programs were won by foreign mainly other NATO countries Examples include the M9 Italy M11 Swiss MP5 Germany DE M249 Belgium M240 Belgium and the M136 AT4 Sweden Latest examples include the Mark 23 Germany FN SCAR Belgium and XM320 AG36 derivative German and development work on the XM8 Germany Accuracy International AS50 Britain and OICW Germany US Its tempting to dismiss these as small projects however many are in fact very expensive over 500 000 M9 pistols were purchased for example Many of these were not simply but jointly developed with input and feedback or to carefully crafted requirements FN Belgium beat out Colt US to produces M16 rifles as of 2005 and a Canadian firm won the contract to produce the latest batch of M9 bayonets beating out earlier U S firms Israel and now Taiwan currently manufacture all 5 56 mm ammunition for the U S With respect to the 5 56 mm NATO round the U S currently uses it is a design won by the Belgians there were other contenders for the round including a U S 5 56 mm Some of special rounds used in U S 50 cal sniper are also made in Europe including a special armour piercing one U S tanks during the Cold War were armed with a license made 105 mm British gun and then a German 120 mm gun which is currently on the M1 Abrams The U S even attempted a joint U S German tank project in the 1960s the MBT 70 The current LAV 25 and Stryker are derivatives the Mowag Piranha Swiss The Marines use the Austrian German 290 GDT see G class which beat a competing U S firm During the 1930s the U S also had a small series of Coastal Patrol boats made in China Furthermore many other types of equipment are purchased The latest example include Embraer of Brazil beating Boeing s 717 for a aircraft contract Other examples include the Alenia C27 the G222 light transport aircraft and the T 45 Goshawk the BAE Hawk used as the main U S Navy training aircraft The Coast Guard also uses the HH 65A Dolphin a version of the Eurocopter Dauphin and the MH 68A the Italian 109 M Also a heavily contested contract for VIP helicopters including the presidential helicopter Marine One went to the AgustaWestland EH101 a UK Italy design 2005 beating entry from Sikorsky The U S also use the Norwegian made Penguin missile as the AGM 119 There are literally dozens of other examples in nearly every defense and military spending area In the broader sense as with every other large country the bulk of contracts in the U S goes to the native country many well justified some less so However compared to other large countries the U S has had a long history of being among the most willing to accept foreign especially European equipment of all sorts To compare one example while the U S uses the German 120 mm gun France Britain and Italy all use their own 120 mm gun at considerable extra expense to themselves Other countries that have had huge military budget such as the Soviet Union have used native designed and produced equipment near exclusively