Army’s Pistol Program Inexplicably Delayed… Again

By Bob Owens

One of the first things I did at SHOW Show in Las Vegas was to hunt down the various companies vying for the U.S. Army’s Modular Handgun System (MHS) contract and try to get a sense of who was submitting for the January 28th deadline.

Official requirements for the XM17 program include:

• non-caliber specific
• modular grips
• grip that accepts a wide-range of hand-sizes (5th to 95th percentile)
• ability to accept different fire-control devices/action types
• ability to accept various magazine sizes
• suppressor compatible
• ability to mount “target enablers” (lights, lasers, etc) on a picatinny rail
• match-grade accuracy (90% or better chance 4″ circle at 50 meters)
• low felt recoil impulse

Predictably, every single company was very, very tight-lipped about their submissions, the conventional widsom is that that the following companies are going to participate.

• Beretta will likely submit a variant of their APX.
• Detonics/STI will submit their STX, a striker-fired 1911/Hi Power-based hybrid.
• General Dynamics/Smith & Wesson will likely submit a next generation variant of their M&P.
• Sig Sauer will submit a variant of their P320.

Glock has stated in the past that they’re going to compete…but I frankly think they’re bluffing unless they been able to keep something radically unlike anything they’ve ever developed under wraps. None of Glocks existing designs come close to meeting the …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms