This is what Project Grayburn should look at
Speaking at a recent briefing at DVD 2026 on the Colt Canada C25 adoption by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), Timothy Moore, Director of International Business Development for Colt Canada framed the programme as a response to hard operational lessons rather than marketing fashion.
“Certain countries are going down the route of defeating centre mass,” Moore noted, referencing the push towards intermediate calibres and body armour penetration. “The Canadians looked at this and said: let’s try and make the rifleman a lot more accurate, and that makes shooting a lot easier.”
The C25 builds directly on the C7/C8 lineage, in service with Canada for more than 30 years and widely fielded among NATO partners and Ukrainian forces. Colt Canada’s position as sovereign small arms provider under the Canadian Ministry of Supply Programme gives it both stability and scrutiny: the contract may be directed, but must still withstand competitive comparison.
Colt Canada C25 – accuracy, ease of use and user fatigue
CAF and the Department of National Defence set a clear mandate: improve hit probabilityit seems common sense, but why not make it easier for a fatigued soldier in the midst of battle to be on target? Especially as the modern soldier is under a vastly increased cognitive load than their contemporaries from just a few years ago. The response is a set of incremental but consequential enhancements.
The most visible is a two-stage trigger, unusual on a general-issue service rifle. This delivers a more deliberate, predictable break aimed at reducing shooter-induced error. Less obvious are changes to internal barrel geometry, which Moore couldn’t go into huge detail about (it’s a competetive world) but described as engineering work focused squarely on improved accuracy.
Combined with a monolithic upper and free‑floating barrel, the C25 offers better harmonics and a rigid mounting base for optics, lasers and accessories – now a core part of every modern infantry system rather than an afterthought. A 1–6x low‑power variable optic (LPVO) is standard, reflecting the CAF’s expectation that primary engagements will demand both rapid close‑range sight picture and the ability to PID and engage at extended distances.
That muzzle device: noise, flash and recoil
The most technically distinct element of the Colt Canada C25 package is the Multifunction Muzzle Device (MFMD), a 3D‑printed flow‑through suppressor from Canadian firm Millbrook Strategic Sciences Inc. Selected after a trial of around 18 suppressor candidates and 10,000‑round endurance testing, it addresses signature, command and control, and user fatigue in a single component.
The MFMD pushes gases forward rather than back into the shooter’s face, and brings sound levels to roughly 140 dB, within hearing-safe limits. Again helping ease that cognitive load.
“By turning down the volume of the gun, you can imagine things like command and control are a lot easier now,” Moore said, linking reduced impulse and noise directly to small-unit tactics.
The same device substantially reduces muzzle flash and felt recoil, with Moore arguing the rifle “will shoot like a .22” in terms of perceived impulse. That is not simply a comfort feature; it widens the effective user base across body types and experience levels, and supports faster, more accurate follow-up shots – particularly important for forces expanding the “broad church” of dismounted close combat personnel.
Backward compatibility and interoperability
A central design requirement was to retain backward compatibility with existing C8 fleets. The C25 upper can be mounted on legacy C8 lowers, and the bolt carrier assembly can be swapped across, preserving a shared spares and training ecosystem.
With thicker pins, additional bossing and fully ambidextrous controls, the platform is more robust without abandoning its AR‑pattern familiarity. For multi‑national deployments, whether in NATO formations or Ukraine, this backward compatibility translates directly into logistics resilience and coalition interoperability.
Staying with gas bleed‑off
At a time when many OEMs are promoting piston‑driven AR variants, Colt Canada has stayed with the Stoner‑pattern gas bleed‑off system. Moore argued that piston conversions create cascading design compromises: heavier bolt carriers, reinforced recoil systems and more pronounced muzzle rise as off-axis forces act on the rifle.
The bleed‑off approach, combined with modern flow‑through suppression, aims to retain the original system’s dwell-time advantages and recoil characteristics while mitigating previous concerns over gas and fouling. Maintenance, Moore suggested, becomes a matter of wiping down and lubricating carbon where it accumulates, rather than introducing more complex mechanical interfaces.
Project Grayburn, market position and procurement realities
Colt Canada’s C7/C8 family is already in service with Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Ukraine, France, Romania and UK Royal Marine and specialist units, among others. Recent Danish purchases were for an earlier variant (CAA4) lacking some of the C25’s refinements, but they underline the export credibility of the basic architecture.
In the UK’s Project Grayburn context, however, Moore was notably cautious.
“We’re observing, we’re understanding, we’re engaging, and we’re looking at it with significant interest,” he said. “If we fit, we fit. If we don’t fit, we don’t fit… it’s got to be right for all parties.”
With multiple high‑quality rifles vying for attention and UK industrial, political and export considerations in flux, Colt Canada is positioning the C25 not as a radical departure but as a mature, data‑driven evolution of a trusted system, one designed to make the individual soldier more accurate, less fatigued and better able to fight, communicate and survive in the modern close combat environment. In our opinion that is a highly compelling argument for a rifle fit for the next thirty years, and the C25 demands close attention.
