#MHS

Beretta has released more information about their APX pistol on their website (in Italian). They’ve shown several images and a video, as well as more technical specifications and general information about the APX. Let’s watch the video first:

The Sig Sauer P250 lent a lot of design and innovation to help create the increasingly popular P320, but its time has come. With the growing market for striker-fire pistols versus hammer-fire compounded with the newly won U.S. Army contract for its new Modular Handgun System (MHS), the P320 has cemented its place in the Sig Sauer line-up. The P250, on the other hand, is on its way out the door.

With SIG’s recent win of the $580 million dollar contract for the US Army’s Modular Handgun System pistol, many are asking just how the American outlet of the Swiss-German SIG Sauer could have won such a large contract, especially against what many perceived was the strongest contender, Glock. Some saw the very text of the MHS solicitation as being biased towards SIG’s entry (which I do not think is true), while others assumed some backdoor deal must have occurred.

On the floor of Shot Show 2017 Remington demos their new RP9 striker fired handgun. Based on a modular trigger housing, there is currently only one model of firearm.

Forget about modularity and the other Army requirements for the newly announced M17 sidearm for a moment.  Do you mean to tell me that the DOD just spent $580M on a pistol that has barely been on the market for three years? A gun that will be carried by US soldiers for at least a decade, more likely two or three, that has only been issued to a handful of law enforcement agencies in the United States? (Love ya Hooksett, NH Police!)

The Sig Sauer P320 was selected as the winner of the Modular Handgun System contract on January 19th, 2017. This was the largest weapons contract that the Department of Defense has awarded in the last 32 years for a small arms replacement program. You can read the full details over at The Firearm Blog at the below link.

Today, the news broke that SIG USA has become the winner of the United States Army’s Modular Handgun System contract, making its P320 handgun the next standard issue sidearm for the United States armed forces. The new pistol, to be designated “M17”, is a smaller, lighter, more adaptable handgun than the US Army’s aging M9, made by Beretta.

“It’s Over. Glock Won.” Hognose writes. What did Glock win? Total domination in the US Special Operations world, and (my speculation) possibly the Modular Handgun System contract as well, by extension. Hognose doesn’t explicitly say that the Glock is destined to be the next US Army service handgun, but go says just about everything short of it:

In a Smith & Wesson SEC filing, it was revealed that the Department of the Army informed them their entry into the Modular Handgun Program would not pass to the next phase. The news is surprising given Smith & Wesson was favored as one of the three entries that would make it through the down selection process.

Almost two years ago, Beretta announced a new striker-fired, polymer framed handgun, which they called the APX. Now, the APX has finally hit gun stores… In Argentina. User mithrils of The Beretta Forum uploaded photos and a short range review of his new pistol, showing the on-the-market Beretta APX off to the other members. A section of his review is replicated below:

On the heels of the new FBI-inspired Glock 17M, and the possibility of the fifth Glock generation being right around the corner, it has been revealed that Smith & Wesson may also be about to introduce an update to its very successful Glock-derived Military & Police line of handguns. The company has recently trademarked the term “M2.0” in the category of bags and accessories, and according to soldiersystems.net this is in preparation for a launch of a new handgun line:

In a previous article on TFB, we compared a Mauser 712 Schnellfeuer to a Glock 17 with an auto sear, and along the way discussed how very limited the usefulness of the modern machine pistol is. Fully automatic pistol-sized weapons have been around for over a hundred years, but they’ve only ever seen limited use in specialist roles, with their adoption and then subsequent abandonment coming seemingly in waves as departments and forces pick up the concept and then discard it upon learning how impractical the weapons are in actual use. The history of machine pistols is fascinating, and those who are interested can follow the link to a podcast I participated in on the subject to learn more.

The US Army’s Modular Handgun System is slated to move forward, downselecting in August of this year from a reported 12 submitted proposals to only three, in preparation for the final competition. The program solicitation was released in September with a deadline of the 1st of February, but the deadline for submissions was extended to February 12th. Now, it seems the Army is in review of the proposals and is poised to choose the final three entrants, one of which will become the next US military standard issue pistol. IHS Jane’s reports:

The United States Army Chief of Staff recently made a splash when be broke form and publicly complained about the Army’s Modular Handgun System procurement to select a new handgun. Citing it as an example of bureaucracy run amok. Senator Joni Ernst recently stated what many have thought, “Why is it so difficult for the Amry to buy a basic item like a pistol?”

The US Army announced today that it is advancing the Modular Handgun System program ahead of its schedule. Due to pressure from Chief of Staff Milley, and a lack of entrants in the competition, the Army is dropping all solicitations for the existing 9x19mm NATO cartridge and focusing on the .40 S&W round. Further, program manager Colonel Scott Armstrong said to the press that only three packages submitted to the PEO Soldier office were complete enough to advance to the next phase of testing and evaluation: