Almost three weeks after the official UK MoD announcement of the adoption of the G17 as their new sidearm, GLOCK makes a similar announcement.
Today GLOCK, Inc. announced its contract award by the United Kingdom Armed Forces, to use the GLOCK 17 Gen4 pistol for its personnel. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) chose GLOCK to deliver 25,000 pistols by the end of March 2013. Troops deployed to Afghanistan will be among the first to use the new weapon.
Warrant Officer Class 1 Mark Anderson, Royal Marines, who conducted a trial of the new weapon before the contract was awarded, enthused, “Pistols are vital in close combat and are a key part of a soldier’s armory. Reliable, light and easy to carry, the GLOCK inspires confidence and performs exceptionally well.”
“After extensive and intense tests and evaluations, GLOCK is pleased to be selected by the MOD,” stated Josh Dorsey, GLOCK Vice President. “The deciding factors were the GLOCK’s higher magazine capacity, the superior accuracy, the ease of use and maintenance and the reliability. The GLOCK SAFE Action System also enables the pistol to spring into action faster.”
The selection process for replacing the Ministry’s previous guns was stringent. The trials for eight of the leading pistol manufacturers in 2011 consisted of a human factors integration test, nine months of scientific evaluation and a coinciding nine months of environmental trials under different climatic conditions. Ultimately, GLOCK proved the best fit for the MOD, and contracts were signed in 2012.
I’d be very interested to hear who the other candidates were, does anyone know?
I was wondering that myself. I second this request. Who were the contenders and does anyone have any info on the testing they conducted?
Tacticaltshirts
Wish the US would adopt the G17! Great choice.
I’d be very interested in finding out where the BROWNINGS are going! Those are a fun lil’ pistol.
I would guess Home-Guard Armoury. They most likely won’t sell them on the open market. The politics of the UK would prevent that.
Tacticaltshirts.com
I hear you on that, I’d love to get ahold of one of those HiPowers at a decent price.
Hopefully they’ll send some to other european militaries (of course at a discounted price) instead of throwing them to the heap outright.
The FN HP is the standard service pistol of the FDF, and they could certainly use more.
Got to handle one during NCO training. Felt comfortable and it was easy to disassemble and reassemble. Too bad they didn’t give us any range time with it…
Personally I believe that the adoption of the G17 by the UK makes it that much more likely that eventually the US will adopt the G17 as well. If we stick with the 9mm as the standard service caliber.
Considering how messed up the Joint Service Pistol search became, I think the 9mm will survive.
Tacticaltshirts
I would gladly take those BHPs off their hands…
I think the biggest question is “why does it take R&D approximately Two Years to decide that the Glock 17 will get the contract. Two years of research….and eventually a contract signed in late 2012. I wonder if it takes two years to decide on a replacement pistol how long it will take them to decide on a holster………?
Glock 19 would probably be more likely IF the US did adopt a Glock, it’s already in the system.
God Bless, Her Majesty and Glock!
Now if only Canada would follow their lead.
other contenders/Candidates were
Beretta Px4 Storm
Heckler & Koch P30
Sig Sauer P226
Smith Wesson M&P