The U.S. Army has no plans to reopen its Modular Handgun System competition, at the request of Glock Inc., to conduct more testing between the winning Sig Sauer P320 and the Glock 19, according to an Army spokesman.
The MHS “contract award speaks for itself,” Army spokesman Wayne V. Hall wrote in a July 6 email to Military.com.
The Army’s statement came a day after Glock Inc. Vice President Josh Dorsey told Military.com that Army allegedly conducted “incomplete testing” by failing to conduct the “heavy endurance testing” that is common in military and federal small arms competitions.
Glock officials are now trying to decide the company’s next course of action after the Government Accountability Office denied Glock’s protest of the Army’s decision to select Sig Sauer to make the service’s new sidearm.
Glock maintains that Sig Sauer’s full-size version of the P320 suffered more stoppages than the Glock 19 in testing the Army conducted -- a statement taken out of the GAO’s findings that were released on June 23.
“We are looking at all alternatives,” Dorsey told Military.com.
The Army awarded Sig Sauer the MHS contract on Jan. 19 to make full-size and compact handguns that will replace the Army’s M9 and compact M11 pistols.
Sig Sauer’s $169.5 million bid was $102 million less than Glock’s bid, according to GAO. The contract is worth up to $580 million according to the Army.
The service launched its long-awaited XM17 MHS competition in late August 2015 to replace the Beretta M9 9mm pistol. The Army's selection of Sig Sauer formally ended Beretta's 30-year hold on the Army's sidearm market.
