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from the next-time-it-will-be-a-light-sabre dept.
The U.S. Army will likely replace its standard-issue sidearm with a Sig Sauer P320 pistol (with undisclosed modifications):
After a long and much-criticized search, the US Army has chosen Sig Sauer to produce its next generation of handgun, eventually replacing the current standard issue sidearm, the Beretta M9 pistol. "Following a thorough operational test, fielding of the modular handgun is expected to begin in 2017," the Army said in a statement announcing the decision Thursday.
The M9's three decades of service since 1985 has occasionally made it the subject of derision among members of the armed forces. "The joke that we had in the military was that sometimes the most effective use of an M9 is to simply throw it at your adversary," Sen. Joni Ernst, a former officer in the Iowa Army National Guard, said last week during the confirmation hearings for Ret. Marine Gen. James Mattis to be secretary of defense. [...] "The Army's effort to buy a new handgun has already taken 10 years and produced nothing but a more than 350-page requirements document micromanaging extremely small unimportant details," Senate Armed Services committee chairman John McCain wrote in a 2015 report on the program's problems.
The Army awarded Sig Sauer Inc. with a $580,217,000 contract. Also at Washington Post, Popular Mechanics, and RT.
More about the Modular Handgun System.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2017, @08:05AM
But, the grunts on the front lines will almost invariably
You are aware, oh font of military wisdom, that only officers and some other "special" personnel are issued side arms?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 24 2017, @10:38AM
You may not be aware that many military personnel carry a sidearm at some time in their career, if they are deemed trustworthy and competent to do so. The Navy generally deems a third class petty officer to stand "Petty of the Watch", in port. The uniform includes a sidearm. He is the first line of defense for whatever might happen. The sidearm is kept unloaded, but ready for action, on his hip, with two magazines on his duty belt. His FIRST job is to sound the alarm, and get more people on scene if something happens, but his second job is to engage any assailants. An honor guard may be ordered to carry either a rifle, or a sidearm - I have carried both. A sentry at certain duty stations is more likely to be armed with a sidearm than a rifle. I won't even try to speak for any of the other services, but our destroyer had about 20 M1911's in the small arms locker, and they were often in sight, and in use, in the performce of duties. Those 20 don't include a smaller arsenal stowed in officer's country.
Call away the security alert team, and you were sure to see a dozen of them. Those weapons were most certainly NOT just ceremonial pieces.