#MHS

In a recent article, Guns & Ammo editor Eric Poole gave us our first look at the Army’s new XM17 Modular Handgun System in action. Within the 3:12 runtime of the brief video, Poole gives a rundown of the handgun’s features and advertised benefits vs. the legacy Beretta M9 handguns currently in service, and gives us our first taste of the P320-derived XM17 in use on the range. Unfortunately, G&A has disabled video embedding, so the video can be found by following the link over to their website, and viewing it there.

Much ado has been made recently about the US Army’s piss-poor performance in completing the evaluations of handguns in the Modular Handgun System contract. While yes, they should have completed the testing, it is fair to say that the Sig is even 3/4 as good as Glock, their $100,000,000 more worth it.

According to a recent article at Military.com, US Army spokespersons said in emails with the magazine that the Army would not be re-trying the Modular Handgun System competition between finalists SIG Sauer and Glock. This statement comes on the heels of Glock Vice President Josh Dorsey’s complaint that the MHS program had been left unfinished, saying that the endurance testing went “uncompleted”. However, a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) contradicts this assessment, and notes that the Army never promised in the Request for Proposal (RFP) to award more than one contract prior to Product Validation Testing (PVT).

After 13 years of searching for the US Army’s next pistol, a successor to the Beretta M9 has been selected. However, with the selection of the SIG P320 as the M17 and M18 Modular Handgun System, many individuals in the industry have been compelled to cry foul and demand the Army retry the competition between the two finalists, Glock and SIG.

Glock isn’t done yet: Despite being passed over by the Army and having their protest of the MHS contract rejected by the GAO, Glock is still hoping for a chance. In a recent interview with Matthew Cox of Military.com, Glock Vice President Josh Dorsey spoke out against the Army’s decision to adopt the SIG Sauer P320 as the new M17 Modular Handgun System. Dorsey’s comments, excerpted below, express dissatisfaction with the Army’s selection process:

Since the Government Accountability Office’s decision to reject Glock’s protest of the Modular Handgun System contract award to SIG Sauer, the GAO has released a statement. The 17 page document outlines not only the reason for the GAO’s decision, but provides insight as to the deciding factors in the MHS contract award as well. Chiefly, the document reveals that SIG substantially underbid Glock, and that this – and not any technical difference between the competitors’ pistols – was the deciding factor in the contract award:

As we all know the competition between Glock and SIG for the military contract has created a great deal of coverage in recent months. While it may seem the story is over with the award given to SIG there is another side of this story that has not been addressed. I’ve obtained a good deal of information in the past week which will be published later this week. We have a brief overview of Glock’s protest here.

It is finally official: The SIG P320 will definitely be the US Army’s next service handgun. Soon after the January announcement of SIG Sauer’s win of the half-billion-dollar MHS contract, gunmaker Glock filed a protest on the decision with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO had until Monday, June 5, to make a decision on whether to hold up the contract or allow the program to continue with procurement of the SIG handgun. Today, the news is out: The GAO has rejected Glock’s protest, and the MHS program can now move forward with procurement of the SIG M17, according to a story from Army Times.

Earlier this month, TFB relayed a report first posted on Military.com’s KitUp! site about the 3 major non-Army services – Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force – all accepting the M17 as their next service handgun. However, thanks to the hard work of Matthew Moss writing for Task & Purpose, we now know that does not seem to be true. Matthew reports for T&P:

The US Army has released the name of the unit which will be the first to receive the new M17 Modular Handgun System pistols produced by SIG Sauer, and that is none other than the legendary “tip of the spear”, the 101st Airborne stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.  Soldier Systems posted an article detailing the announcement, which also carries a promise that other units stationed at Fort Campbell will receive the new handguns early as well. From SoldierSystems.net:

The US Army’s M17 Modular Handgun System, derived from the SIG P320 handgun, has crossed one of the final hurdles on the track to full replacement of previous service handguns (including chiefly the Beretta M9). The United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force have all announced their acceptance of the M17 MHS as the new sidearm for each respective service, according to a story written by Matthew Cox for KitUp!

The Firearm Blog would like to extend its thanks to reader and contributor Giorgio, who lent his journalistic services to us at this years IDEX conference in Abu Dhabi in February. Thanks, Giorgio!

I’ve rather enjoyed the hub-ub over the recent protest filed by Glock on the XM-17 Modular Handgun System award to Sig Sauer. The community is all abuzz with rumors and speculation, mostly centering on how Glock would not likely have a manual safety (they do for the submission) and how the MHS is the “only” modular system (it was not, two pins on a Glock and out pops the fire control group).

With Sig Sauer officially winning the XM17 US Army pistol contract, and Glock protesting the outcome of the trials, somebody has to supply the military ammunition. That is where Winchester comes into the picture. They have been selected as the ammunition supplier for the U.S. Army modular handgun system program.

SIG Sauer is not quite out of the woods yet regarding their recent Modular Handgun System contract win. Finalist Glock – who for many was the favorite to win – has protested the XM17 contract award. SIG won the MHS contract earlier this year with a variant of their P320 handgun based on the Compact frame. The news of SIG’s win was announced on January 19th, the day before the inauguration of the new US President and his administration.