The Daniel Defense DDM4 MK18 is history in the making!
At Arnzen Arms we deal in a lot of modern firearms, but we also encounter our fair share of historical firearms. What most folks don’t necessarily realize is that we have many specimens of modern historical firearms hanging on our walls as well. A stellar example of this would be our selection of Daniel Defense MK18’s. The MK18 is a current production and accurately spec’d specimen of the Close Quarters Battle Receiver (CQBR) derived from the SOPMOD program in the mid-1990’s.
The CQBR would ultimately be split from the SOPMOD program as a stand alone weapon and be classified as the MK18. Primarily a retrofit of existing obsolete M16 receivers in inventory, the MK18 has a 10.3” barrel (the shortest that would work with a Knights Armament suppressor), an adjustable carbine stock, and one of the first issued quad-rail hand guards in addition to some internal modifications. The MK18 is one of the first agency acknowledgments of the modularity of the AR-15 that make it so popular today.
The demand and specifications for the MK18 were born out of the era of sub-machine guns. Vast success of sub-guns in Vietnam lead to the widespread use by the British SAS and US Spec Ops units from the 1960’s on. While the HK MP5 made its mark on history in the 1980’s, the demand for more firepower needed to be addressed in the 1990’s. A weapon with rifle ballistics that would fit in a similar footprint as the MP5 and accept the modern illumination and sighting accessories ultimately resulted in the MK18.
While a purebred MK18 is nearly impossible to find in the wild because they are largely configured user to user, the original MK18 Mod 0’s were made out of a combination of Colt, LMT and Knight’s Armament parts. In the mean-time, Daniel Defense has won the contract to supply many of these parts to the US Military. Daniel Defense believes very strongly in offering the exact same products they sell to military and law enforcement to their commercial customers as well. The public offering is as factory complete and as specification correct as the DDM4 MK18 they sell to “the units”. If you are interested in this piece of weapon system evolution, come on down to Arnzen Arms and check out our selection of Daniel Defense SBR’s.
