COLT MODEL 653 (RO653)

CARBINE, 5.56 MILLIMETER
NSN 1005-01-029-3866

The RO653 carbine was first utilized by United States Army Rangers during Operation Urgent Fury (in 1983). The carbine would continue to be utilized by special operation units throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. The RO653 carbine was utilized during Operations Just Cause, Desert Shield/Storm, and Restore Hope. While most of the RO653 carbines were acquired Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS), there was a small amount of the carbine acquired through normal contracting.

On 1 April 1982, 11 carbines are acquired as part of the larger DAAA09-81-G-2026 contract with COLT DEFENSE LLC (which included acquisition of M16A1 rifles, M231 firing port weapons, and a large quantity of spare parts). On 1 March 1986, 256 carbines were acquired as part of the PTHC8Z5312500 contract with COLT DEFENSE LLC. On 1 July 1988, an additional 30 carbines are acquired as part of the N00104-88-T-CZ43 contract with COLT DEFENSE LLC.

[ABOVE: Department of Defense] Image dated 22 January 1986 and originally captioned "Three U.S. Army Rangers participate in a training exercise. The Ranger in the foreground is armed with an M-16A1 carbine." The center Ranger, holding the RO653 carbine, is (at the time of the photograph) Sergeant Vincent John Lombardi Jr. (no relation to the football legend - even though his nickname was "coach"). He was a Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury) veteran, hence the dual Ranger scrolls on his OG-106 uniform. He served in the United States Army for twenty-two years, attaining the rank of Major. He sadly passed on 18 February 2003.

The end-user of the RO653 carbine simply called it the CAR-15. The name was a holdover from the Vietnam War, where the shortened XM177-series of submachine guns were called CAR-15 by grunts. The name originally derived from Colt's marketing of their series of 5.56mm submachine guns, rifles, and machine guns known as the "5.56mm MILITARY WEAPONS SYSTEMS." The term CAR-15 was an attempt by Colt to distance the AR-15 name from Armalite. The name AR-15, originally created by Armalite, stood for ARmalite model 15. The term AR-15 has often been erroneously stated as standing for Armalite Rifle model 15, even though Armalite itself stated it stood for ARmalite model 15. Colt wanted to disassociate Armalite from the AR-15 and thus came up with the CAR designation, standing for Colt Automatic Rifle. Colt's original CAR family consisted of the CAR-15 rifle (designated by the United States military as the M16), CAR-15 carbine, CAR-15 submachine gun, among others. The CAR-15 submachine gun evolved into the CAR-15 Commando or Colt Commando. The United States military utilized the CAR-15 Commando during the Vietnam War (designed by the United States military as the XM177-series of submachine guns). Grunts simply referred to all variations of the Commando and XM177-series as CAR-15. The term continued to be utilized by grunts after the war, applying it to any Colt 5.56mm submachine gun and carbine.