To Whom Is the Infidel Being Issued?

T

The Whip

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Jan 28, 2007
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In a recent perusal of my backlogged reading material, I discovered that Benchmade's 3300BK has been in the U.S. military's procurement system for over four years now (NSN 1095-01-598-4471). Its procurement title is listed simply as "KNIFE, COMBAT," which seems appropriate enough given its design.

My questions are: For which units is the military procuring Infidels? Has anyone been issued one? The few NSN-marked models that I've seen come up for sale have appeared unused. I know that other nationally stocked Benchmade autos get issued and used. But the Infidel is such a limited-application design that I was surprised to see it in the military's rolls and I'm very curious if it is actually being supplied to the guys who might use it.

-Steve
 
My guess is for whichever unit has the funds and requests that specific knife.
 
I have seen two that I was told they were issued to them one was an EOD soldier who said his supply had money to burn and they sold it to the command as a knife they could use with gloves on for opening and closing. The other a special ops soldier who said their S4(supply) was able to get them thinking they were getting the AFO and ended up with the infidel. Other than that I haven't seen infidels in the supply system being ordered, we tried to get our supply guys to get us some but they said they couldn't but they were able to get the AFOs for Special Forces team guys, but not support.
 
WolfSpring said:
I have seen two that I was told they were issued to them one was an EOD soldier who said his supply had money to burn and they sold it to the command as a knife they could use with gloves on for opening and closing. The other a special ops soldier who said their S4(supply) was able to get them thinking they were getting the AFO and ended up with the infidel. Other than that I haven't seen infidels in the supply system being ordered, we tried to get our supply guys to get us some but they said they couldn't but they were able to get the AFOs for Special Forces team guys, but not support.
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Good information. Thanks, WolfSpring!

It doesn't sound like they were obtained for any particular unit, just general distribution on an as-needed basis. What a strange purchasing decision!

-Steve
 
Interesting choice for a deployment knife. I had an Infidel for a while, and would have to disassemble it every month or two to clean pocket lint out of the mechanism. I can't imagine what some real dirt or sand would do to that mechanism.

The AFO makes sense though.
 
jpm2 said:
Maybe Officers only?
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Every unit I've been in the officer is lucky if he gets issued a pencil :p . They do tend to be first in line to get the cool stuff that they don't need, like when most units still had M16s the officers were getting M4s and pistols.

i have one and carried it for a while on my belt and hate the sheath the Velcro on it rubs my waist and it sits funny I went back to my AFO after about two weeks, mine wasn't issued it was a fathers day present from the wife and was highly discounted.
 
WolfSpring said:
Every unit I've been in the officer is lucky if he gets issued a pencil :p . They do tend to be first in line to get the cool stuff that they don't need, like when most units still had M16s the officers were getting M4s and pistols.

i have one and carried it for a while on my belt and hate the sheath the Velcro on it rubs my waist and it sits funny I went back to my AFO after about two weeks, mine wasn't issued it was a fathers day present from the wife and was highly discounted.
Click to expand...

Can't imagine an infidel being a combat knife, that's why I was wondering officers only.
 
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