Sig Sauer has a green light to build and deliver the Army’s new XM17 modular handgun system under a $580 million contract the company won in January.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Monday denied a protest by Georgia-based handgun manufacturer GLOCK, Inc., which asserted its pistol is a superior replacement for the Berretta M9.
GLOCK announced its loss in a press release on June 6. A GAO spokesman confirmed that the case was closed on June 5 and that GLOCK’s protest was denied. The full report is listed as “distribution protected,” which means it will not be made public until redactions are made, the GAO spokesman told Defense Daily.
The Berretta M9 9mm pistol has been the Defense Department’s standard-issue sidearm since 1990. As the largest user of the handgun, the Army took the lead on replacing the M9, which is aging and has performance and reliability shortcomings that the service deemed could only be addressed with a new handgun design.
The XM17 MHS will replace it and the more-compact M11 – also manufactured by Sig Suaer – with a commercial off-the-shelf, non-developmental handgun that has superior lethality, target acquisition, ergonomics, reliability and durability, according to Army documents. MHS also can be used by right- and left-handed shooters, includes modular grip sizes and can accept a suppressor.
GLOCK claimed in its protest that the Army did not complete the testing regimen laid out in its own request for proposals and awarded the contract to Sig Sauer after only limited initial testing. GLOCK also contends Sig won the contract based on price before all the contending handguns could be thoroughly tested. GLOCK’s MHS submission was based on its G19 pistol, which is already used by some Special Operations units, foreign militaries, the FBI and numerous U.S. local and state law enforcement agencies.
“During this initial testing, there were no significant differences between the GLOCK and Sig pistols based upon the technical factors that were evaluated,” GLOCK said in the statement announcing the protest denial. “In fact, Sig Sauer was awarded the MHS contract prematurely based upon price.”
“The remainder of the testing outlined in the RFP that was not conducted was intended to competitively evaluate the two proposals based upon more comprehensive and stringent testing,” GLOCK added. “This testing would have measured the service life, safety, reliability, and accuracy of the pistols in use while being fired by the warfighters.”
“By not completing the testing on both proposals on a competitive basis, the Army never determined which pistol would better meet the warfighter’s needs,” said GLOCK, Inc. Vice President Josh Dorsey. We are confident had the Army completed the testing, the GLOCK 19 would have outperformed the Sig P320, as it had in recent testing conducted by a leading federal law enforcement agency which resulted in GLOCK, Inc. being awarded that contract. GLOCK pistols have been battle proven by select units of the U.S. military forces for the past ten years. GLOCK, Inc. stands with the men and women serving in the Armed Forces and will continue to give them its full support.
The decision clears the way for Sig to continue producing its P320 pistols in MHS configurations – full, compact and “General Officer” variants, along with magazines, pouches, cases and suppressor kits – and delivering them to the Army. Work is not permitted on contracts that are under protest by the GAO, so the program has essentially been on hold for four months.
In its fiscal year 2018 budget request, the Army outlined plans to buy 22,705 handguns for a total price of $8.3 million. Another $19.5 million is set aside in fiscal year 2019 to purchase 68,094 pistols. Future planning in the budget document ends with an outlay of $22.8 million for 85,774 handguns in fiscal 20202.
In all, the 2018 budget document shows plans to buy 176,573 pistols through 2020 for the active Army, Reserve and National Guard but does not list funding or purchase quantities for fiscal 2021 or 2022. Ongoing procurement program typically list funding projections for five years.