Friday, March 11, 2016

Army Chief Wants Power to Select New Pistol

The U.S. Army's chief of staff said Thursday that if he had his way, he'd abandon the bureaucratic Modular Handgun System effort and personally select the service's next pistol. Speaking at the Future of War Conference 2016, Gen. Mark Milley said he has asked Congress to grant service chiefs the authority to bypass the Pentagon's multi-layered and complex acquisition process on programs that do not require research and development. "We are not exactly redesigning how to go to the moon, right?" Milley said. "This is a pistol. ... And arguably, it is the least lethal and important weapon system in the Department of Defense inventory."

6 comments:

Fidel said...

Wow. Nice to see a politician willing to incur the wrath that will befall him when he doesn't pick someone's favorite.

Personally, I'd go with a Glock, probably in 9mm (although I carry a Glock in .45ACP).

17, 19, even the single-stacks. Good enough.....and quit screwing around with the bureaucrats

Joe said...


Respectfully,

A great theory until one realizes that ALL Flag officers are personally approved by the President.

" Sorry Colt, our records show that your company has a distinct lack of commitment to the promotion of gay and transgender employees into executive level management positions. For this reason, I have decided to award the 2018 new Army service pistol contract to Lorcin Engineering* ."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorcin_Engineering_Company

Submitted - 04 July 2016

General Carol "Diesel" Mudgruller U.S. Army
as per direction of President H. Clinton

Charles N. Steele said...

Get a 1911 in .45, or a Glock in 9mm. Or both. There's nothing to study.

Millwright said...

There a host of innovative new handgun designs - particularly when the concept of "modularity" is considered - available from established, and new players in the handgun marketplace. I don't know why the DOD ( the champions of multi-hundred million buck airplane purchases ) can't find a paltry ten million to buy a short run of production offerings from, say,, three dozen US. manufacturers and put them in the hands of the troops ( and their armorers) for some first-hand apolitical practical feedback.

Chiu ChunLing said...

Finding out which pistol the troops themselves actually prefer? That sounds dangerously close to just letting individuals decide for themselves which handgun best fits their own needs...and yet not close enough for my tastes.

Anonymous said...

Meh. In modern fire-and-maneuver infantry tactics, the real "teeth" of the infantry platoon and company are the SAWs and LMGs--and we don't even have the money to replace 35-year-old M249 SAWs that are falling apart, held together with zip ties and bubble gum, and suffer a stoppage of some kind every forty or fifty rounds. Why is anyone even talking about sidearms, which in the 21st Century see combat use about as often as ceremonial dress swords?