US Army delays handgun decision. Again. Still.
Every few years, they send out an RFP for a new handgun. And, it seems, every year they take it back. Well, they’ve done it again:
The U.S. Army has announced it will delay the release of a much-anticipated request for proposals (RfP) for a new sidearm to replace the Beretta M9. The request “has been delayed until further notice in order to allow for improvements to the RfP as a result of feedback received from industry,” the Army said in a Jan. 21 message to Congress.
February 3rd, 2015 at 11:25 am
IMO there is no gun that is such a significant upgrade over the M9 that is worth going through the process.
I mean unless someone has developed a phaser or blaster that I am unaware of. But then I’m sure they have their problems too.
February 3rd, 2015 at 12:29 pm
I’m with HL – i think they’re looking for a generational advance in technology, not just another 9mm that happens to be polymer. they could hop to the 5.7, but that’s a proprietary round. so screw it, let’s wait.
February 3rd, 2015 at 12:38 pm
I knew they wouldn’t go through with it.
February 3rd, 2015 at 1:59 pm
Does the Army collect ad money for all the hits they drive to gun websites whenever this comes up? They could make the new pistol self-funding.
February 3rd, 2015 at 2:06 pm
They’ll go through with it. It’s just being tailored to the interests.
Glock surely wasn’t excited about a manual safety.
S&W and GD surely wanted to toss something in there they could fill.
SIG… Poor Sig… The only entrant with an actually modular handgun system surely cannot win it.
Beretta is clearly the most shrewd of them all, to suddenly come up with a handgun that meets all the proposed specs that’s cheaper than the current handgun with all the parts, mag, holster commonality all set to go. My guess is the specs are being redrawn in part to remove the 92 from the consideration.
It’ll flop around for awhile and in the end we’ll definitely get the 92A3, maybe something else eventually.
February 3rd, 2015 at 5:27 pm
I say give each soldier a 500 dollar voucher (or whatever number) and let him buy the pistol and holster of his choice. If he wants to spend either more or less, fine. The only requirement would be caliber; 9 mm Para or 45 ACP, for logistics reasons. That way the “best” pistol will out itself. Besides; one model of auto pistol, verses some other model, in the same caliber is not going to be a game changing factor in warfare, so why stress over it?
But that would be far, far too easy and simple, wouldn’t it? Now I’m sure people will chime in and give all the myriad reasons why “that could never work”.
One of the intents behind the second amendment, and also behind the formation of the NRA, was that Johnnie would be able to show up with what he already had and knew how to use. THAT of course will drive authoritarians crazy (or rather, “crazier”, being that they’re already crazy). “It just isn’t done. We’ll come up with the reasons later.”
February 3rd, 2015 at 5:36 pm
If Johnnie decides, after deployment, that his choice of pistol wasn’t such a great idea, and he likes his buddy’s pistol a lot better, he should be able to write home and have his family (or friends, etc.) go to the local hardware store, buy him a new pistol and mail it to him.
February 3rd, 2015 at 7:29 pm
Lyle, that’s cute. Let us know when you’re done writing your 1800s era fan fiction.
February 3rd, 2015 at 7:34 pm
@Lyle, so what do you do for a soldier whose sidearm breaks in the field?
February 3rd, 2015 at 7:38 pm
I wish my office could pull back RFPs so easily. Somebody screwed up and sent out an early draft that didn’t include half the requirements, but my management didn’t want to admit a mistake, so we went ahead and awarded it. Now we’re going to pay a contractor for the new 10 months to deliver an unusable system – luckily it’s a “small” contract by DoD standards…
February 3rd, 2015 at 10:39 pm
Next time the stupid bureaucrats in whatever acronym the dumb army calls procurement send out an RFP for a new pistol manufacturers should collude and send it back with crayon drawings on it.
February 4th, 2015 at 12:27 am
That org is product manager individual weapons if I’m not mistaken.
The problem with the rfp could be any number of things. If I had to guess, given current budget environment, the manufacturers came back and said there’s no way to meet the technical requirements at the specified cost.
February 4th, 2015 at 9:45 am
I’m guessing that the RFP was written by committee – meaning it is completely senseless and self-contradicting. Somebody in the Army read it and decided not to embarrass the service by releasing it.
Also there is no money and no need for a new ornamental pistol.
February 4th, 2015 at 10:56 am
Lyle,
I agree. I submitted a similar proposal on another forum and wow did the armchair rangers get upset.
I would go another step further. If soldiers are carrying the handgun of their preference, then they will be more likely to shoot it on the weekends at the local range. Now, we can add all of the caveats to this statement we want, but the core is still true: the only way to get better at shooting is to shoot more.
As to the “what if a handgun goes down in the field scenario”, then one of the REMFs can loan the soldier a pistol until a repair can be made. Any pistol with high number of failures will end up on the rumor mill long before the administration take action. Soldiers talk.
February 4th, 2015 at 11:53 am
In 1991 we had a squad of Marine MPs walk a big group of Iraqi prisoners up to our camp. They had their badass looking .45’s trained on them.
Then one of them leans over and asks: “You guys have any .45 ammo, we never got issued any, these pistols are empty.” Couldn’t help with the .45, we did hand them some freshly dropped AKs and Makarov pistols.
February 4th, 2015 at 12:38 pm
Hopefully the eurotrash M9 will go.. the maintenance to replace the locking blocks every 25k rounds and slides every 35k rounds is just stupid.
Just buy Glock 17s with a slide mounted safety and be done with it. They don’t replace parts every 25k rounds (as if guns have a round counter attached to them.)
If they want to buy American, ok, no problem. S&W just beefs up the M&P series and puts a slide mounted safety.
That or maybe the Ruger. But enough of this Beretta stuff that is basically a Walther design done badly.
February 4th, 2015 at 1:04 pm
Damned thumb safeties, anyway. The 1910 didn’t have one, and didn’t need it. It was added to the 1911 because of the horse cavalry we don’t even have anymore. I treat the ones on my 1911 types as a malfunction when they accidentally get engaged, which they do sometimes bumping into things, because I draw wronghanded.
February 4th, 2015 at 5:58 pm
They want a gun with the ass of a 10mm, the recoil of a 22, cost of a rock, and interest of our sometimes allies.
February 4th, 2015 at 7:00 pm
I, for one, welcome the coming return to production of the Gyrojet pistol.
February 6th, 2015 at 4:31 pm
Those High Points are very reasonable.