On the eve of President Donald Trump's Inauguration, the US Army announced the Sig Sauer P320 pistol as the replacement for the Beretta M9 as the Army's standard sidearm. The Army's Beretta M9 has no shortage of critics since even before it replaced the venerable .45 Auto Colt 1911 pistol in 1985. Now, 32 years later, the Army has let a contract worth over half a billion dollars to replace the M9.
The Sig Sauer P320 handgun is unique in that it can be customized without tools by the end user, tailoring it to different "missions". It's not just interchangeable backstraps we're talking about. Most every feature of the gun can be changed out, readily and quickly, without a whole toolbox. It should prove a good choice to serve the Army for the next thirty-plus years in a host of roles.
Army Picks Sig Sauer's P320 Handgun to Replace M9 Service Pistol
LAS VEGAS — The U.S. Army on Thursday awarded Sig Sauer a contract worth $580 million to make the next service pistol based on the company's P320 handgun.
Sig Sauer beat out Glock Inc., FN America and Beretta USA, the maker of the current M9 9mm service pistol, in the competition for the Modular Handgun System, or MHS, program.
"We are both humbled and proud that the P320 was selected by the U.S. Army as its weapon of choice," Ron Cohen, chief executive officer of Sig Sauer, said in a statement to Military.com here at SHOT Show, the world's largest gun show, taking place this week in the city.
"Securing this contract is a testimony to Sig Sauer employees, their commitment to innovation, quality and manufacturing the most reliable firearms in the world," Cohen added.
The Army launched its long-awaited XM17 MHS competition in late August 2015 to replace its Cold War-era M9 9mm pistol.
Nick Leghorn did a great review of the P320 back in 2014 here at TTAG. Here's his overall rating:
Overall Rating: * * * *
It’s not perfect. Well, not yet anyway. A crisper trigger would go a long way. But out of the box, the gun is about three and a half stars. Factor in the insane level to which you can customize this gun and it earns a full 4 stars. A truly modular handgun, executed with typical SIG SAUER precision.
Wikipedia has more on the features of Sig's modular P320:
Features
A key feature of the pistol is its modular design. The main module of the P320 is an internal stainless steel frame fire control unit, which consists of the integrated fire control group (trigger, hammer and all necessary linkage and springs), ambidextrous slide release (one on each side of the pistol), ejector and four slide rails. This steel receiver unit is used in every P320 grip module, top end, and chambering combination and is inserted into the grip frame module and held in place by the axis pin of the disassembly lever. The firearm's serial number is on the fire control unit instead of the grip module. The fire control unit allows the operator to interchange differently-sized slide assembly or top end modules and polymer grip frame modules and trigger shoes and (limited) chambering conversions to adapt the gun to the individual user and address different needs.
The P320 was designed to be ambidextrous in handling, sporting an ambidextrous slide catch lever and user reversible magazine catch. All other operating controls are designed so they can be operated from either side. The firearm can be field stripped with no tools. Additionally, the firearm can also be field stripped without depressing the trigger or requiring a tool, an additional safety feature to prevent negligent discharge of the weapon.[2]
The full-size, carry and compact grip modules feature an integral Picatinny rail mounting-bracket at the lower forward edge of the module to allow the mounting of laser sights, tactical lights, and other accessories.
Modular options
The P320 pistol is offered in three glass-reinforced polymer grip module sizes—small, medium, and large — in each of the full-sized, carry/compact, and subcompact P320 variants. The pistol top ends also come in full-sized, compact, and subcompact variants that will fit the correspondingly sized grip modules. Every chambering can be converted by the user with a caliber exchange kit. The 9×19mm Parabellum, .40 S&W, and .357 SIG chamberings share their polymer grip frame modules and this offers the possibility to interchange these three chamberings by swapping the top end — consisting of the slide, recoil spring assembly, barrel and the box magazine. Due to the significantly larger external dimensions of the .45 ACP cartridge compared to the other P320 chambering options, the .45 ACP chambering uses slightly wider .45 ACP specific polymer grip modules with an enlarged magazine well.
The manufacturer offers caliber exchange kits or Caliber X-Change kits consisting of a slide, recoil assembly, barrel, box magazine and grip module in the varying frame sizes, grip module sizes and chambering variants in which the P320 pistol is offered. These kits enable a user to switch between the various P320 configurations without the use of tools.
But everyone said the .40 was dead and the 9 wasn't big enough. I guess some of us will just have to make do with shot placement.