The Top Three Contenders For The U.S. Military’s XM17 Modular Handgun System Contract

By Bob Owens

We’re just a week away from the fourth and final industry day where handgun manufacturers will meet to discuss the U.S. Military’s requirements for the XM17 Modular Handgun System (MHS). The XM17 project winner will be a replacement for the venerable, but now worn-out M9s made by Beretta that have been the nation’s top military pistol for 30 years.

The meeting will take place on July 7-8 at New Jersey’s Picatinny Arsenal.

The winner of the MHS contract is expected to be awarded the contract for roughly 280,000 full-size handguns for the Army, more than 200,000 for the Navy, Air Force, and Marines, and perhaps as many as 10,000 compact variants for concealed carry by military and DoD civilain law enforcement and clandestine special operations use.

While numerous companies will be vying for the lucrative contract, it’s going to be very tough for companies to meet the demands of the contract, which are designed to obtain the best handgun possible based upon new advances in the field of combat human factors and anthropomorphic research.

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 …read more

  Source:: Bearing Arms