According to the Department of the Navy’s recently published DoD Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Estimates for Marine Corps Procurement, the service plans to spend $6.3 million in 2019 to purchase 35,000 Modular Handgun Systems.
Way down in the notes on page 105 of this document, is the following statement:
The Modular Handgun System will be purchased to replace the legacy M9, M9A1, M45A1, and M007 pistols with a more affordable and efficient pistol for maintenance. The MHS also provides modularity and greater shooter ergonomics over the current models which will allow for more accurate fire for military personnel of different sizes. (Emphasis added)
SIG SAUER won the Modular Handgun System competition in January 2017 and since then has been delivering weapons which consist of a pistol, configurable as the full-size M17 or the compact M18, along with several new cartridges, including Ball and Special Purpose ammunition.
Just last year, the Marine Corps adopted the FBI’s Glock 19M as the M007, a tongue-in-cheek nomenclature if there ever was one. But this purchase for their Criminal Investigation Division members, seems short-lived.
Granted, this doesn’t mean that all Glocks in the Marine Corps will be replaced, just the M007s. MARSOC will keep their SOCOM-issued G19s. However, this move will most likely also affect the M007s requested under UONS to 2nd MARDIV.
To be sure, there are plenty of other gems in this document, like money allocated for additional M27 IARs as well as fielding CSASS and the M320 Grenade Launcher, but that the Marine Corps is announcing the replacement of the M007 so quickly is worth singling out.
The Glocks won’t be the only things to go. Naturally, the Beretta M9 and M9A1 pistols are slated to be removed from service, since was the goal of the program all along. But even the 1911-derived M45A1 CQB pistols produced by Colt for the Reconnaissance community will be replaced as well.
For those of you who think this is a new development, it’s really not. The Marine Corps is a participant in the MHS program and has been open about their plans to adopt MHS. Interestingly, when this slide was briefed at last year’s NDIA Armaments Conference in May, the M007 pistol hadn’t even been announced yet.
Just a few years ago, the Marine Corps scrubbed most of the handguns from their unit-level Tables of Organization and Equipment. That 35,000 number for MHS may represent the vast majority of their service-wide buy. But that’s the way the Marines like to handle their procurements; swiftly.
