U.S Army General Mark Milley is sick and tired of the military’s Byzantine and politically-compromised procurement system, and is looking for a COTS (commercial off the shelf) solution to replace the Beretta M9 pistol instead of waiting for years for the Modular Handgun System trials to complete.
He wants Glocks, and he wants them now.
The Army launched its long-awaited XM17 MHS competition in late August to replace its Cold-War era, M9 9mm pistol.
Milley criticized the program’s 356-page requirement document and lengthy testing phase slated to cost $17 million for technology that has existed for years.
“The testing itself is two years long on known technology,” Milley told law makers at a March 16 House Armed Services Committee hearing.
“We are not talking about nuclear subs or going to the moon here. We are talking about a pistol.”
But behind the scenes, Milley has moved beyond criticism and taken steps to select a new sidearm for soldiers, including exploring the possibility of bypassing the MHS effort altogether.
Milley recently asked the Army Special Operations Command’s G-8 office, which oversees fielding of equipment, if there is room for the Army to join its pistol contract to buy Glock 19s, according to a source who asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
The compact Model 19 is one of Glock’s most popular handguns. The striker-fired, 9mm pistol features a four- inch barrel and has a standard capacity of 15 rounds, although 17-round magazines are available. The polymer frame features an accessory rail for mounting lights.
General Milley has every right to gripe about a system rigged to satisfy the needs of lobbyists and pad the retirements of acquisition officers than it is to serve troops in the field.
Unfortunately, the fact remains that even if the Army could piggyback on the SOCOM contract, Glock’s pistols still have many of the same crucial shortcomings of Beretta’s M9, which has to do with the composition of the modern military itself than the it does the design of a given pistol.
The modern U.S. military has more women and smaller-statured soldiers than the military of the past. More specifically, these are men and women with smaller hands and shorter fingers than soldiers of the past.
One of the primary goals of the MHS program was to find a handgun with a grip that could fit the largest possible range of hand sizes, and therefore be shot well by a wider range of troops.
Glock’s handgun designs, including the 19 and 17, have not decreased in size from when they were first considered in the 1980s, and will not meet the key performance parameter (KPP) of fitting the 5th to the 95th percentile of hand sizes the modern military needs.
So what’s the right answer? What best suits the needs of the troops in the field?
I’d suggest that the Army should simply scrap the MHS tryouts, buy the intellectual property rights to the design that best meets the needs of the modern soldier, take the design in-house, and use the Army’s own small arms manufacturing capability to build the gun the military needs.
Is that so hard?
Read the Original Article at Bearing Arms
In other words, one size does NOT fit all. I rejected Glock outright and Taurus, for a Springfield Armory XD 9mm.
I take it you mean an SA XD?? Yeah I Actually owned one of the First Generation Springfield Armory XD .45’s back in 2007; Took it to the range with 4 different types of ammo and it would not eat anything buy high quality brass loads, namely Winchester White Box… no bi-metal or steel case loads at all..some would even stovepipe. Sent it back to them, 3 weeks later get another gun…does same thing, but even worse. I get my money back bought a Glock 21 SF, fell in love with it..thing ate anything you put in it. Liked it so much bought it’s little brother for Concealed Carry in Texas Summers; the Glock 30 SF. Have never looked back since then, only handgun I carry is a Glock.
Wow – Never ever had my XD behave like that. Guess it’s a matter of personal experience… I have heard horror stories about Glocks too, but in my case the grip just wasn’t right.
What’s up with the !!! smiley face?
Sorry about that, it seems my morning coffee has not kicked in…writing always seems to suffer LOL 🙂
LOL Yeah, funny how the fingers and brain dont communicate too well before my 2 cups of Jo.
No; it happened when I tried to use the Springfield designation. I can’t put X and D together, it becomes that smiley face.
Gotcha..thats why it happened. Duh!
BTW – I changed my image on PWE; to brighten it up a bit. The theme I use, Motion, (and still prefer) doesn’t allow for a changing header image, and those themes that do, very much limit the size and scope of any graphics. What do you think?
Its OK. You might consider a shade or two darker for the background color…As a general rule a darker background is better for a site where there is a tremendous amount of text not just to read but also to navigate through the site.
Yes; which is why I selected the image (light grey background) that had become a fixture. I get eagle photos from the web; I can’t exactly choose the color scheme. Paint is problematic when I try to make alterations. Guess I’ll make a copy of this one in my files and try to make a color adjustment. Thanks for the feedback.
No worries. There are a host of things to consider in Web and blog design, the 3 Biggest things IMO though are these:
Ease of Reading
Ease Of Navigation
Compatibility with other Devices, mainly Smart Phones.
I have learned to steer away from Photo Headers only because it is difficult to control the background hue and color scheme, WordPress is an OK blog/Web platform but is it far from perfect. I dislike the ideal of pre-loaded themes which lock you in as far as # of widgets and Text. Of course I know WP does this on purpose to force you to upgrade to more open ended design patterns.
Hi; I had to save two copies of the picture; so as to have a spare if the editing “went south” One tedious job filling in a different background color without butchering (much) the fine details on the eagle feathers, talons, etc. I think the contrast will pass your muster. Check it out!
Oh Yeah!! That is what I am talking about!! Great Work! The words just pop off the page, don’t they? That is the difference right there between a blog somebody will stop and read and one they will just “pass over”…now see if your views and subscribership don’t go up some now!