The Army’s new sidearm will enter service next month with the fielding of 2,000 handguns that will replace the Beretta M9.
At that time, the XM17, called throughout its development the Modular Handgun System (MHS), will be designated the M17. The Army plans to issue 2,000 of the Sig Sauer pistols to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky.
The pistol will then be distributed to the 3rd Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood, Texas, and the service’s security assistance brigades before eventually supplanting the Beretta M9 as the service’s primary sidearm. The first security assistance brigade, of which there will be six, is forming up at Fort Benning, Ga. The units will be made up of highly-trained conventional soldiers whose primary mission is to train allied convention forces, much like Special Forces does for foreign commandos.
Brig. Gen. Brian Cummings, chief of Program Executive Office Soldier at Fort Belvoir, Va., told the Army News Service those first three units should have the M17 before the end of the 2017.
Based on the Sig Sauer P320, the MHS comes in two variants, the standard full-frame M17 and the compact M18, both of which are chambered in 9mm.
Sig won a $580 million contract over several competing handgun manufacturers in January. Glock, makers of polymer-framed pistols popular with U.S. law enforcement, protested the decision but the Government Accountability Office denied its objections.
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 Sauer with a commercial off-the-shelf, non-developmental handgun that has superior lethality, target acquisition, ergonomics, reliability and durability
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 2020.
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 programs typically list funding projections for five years.