The U.S. Army will have to put off testing of the XM17 Modular Handgun System for now. Glock has filed protests over the awarding of the handgun contract to replace the M9 pistol to Sig Sauer. The Sig Sauer P320 pistol was chosen by the U.S. Army over other competitors, with Sig Sauer winning over Glock at the end of the selection.

It is a big money contract, as it the contract costs US$580 million over a ten year period and thus Glock is not willing to give up without a fight.

Glock filed their protest at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) last February 24, 2017 with the U.S. Army having until the June 5, 2017 to reply. No documents are available at the GAO website to download so we can go over the general details of the protest.

Sig Sauer is to supply the U.S. Army both the full size and compact versions of the P320, a polymer striker-fired pistol that has interchangeable grip modules and can be configured to fire different calibers. In this case, the U.S. Army has settled for the 9mm caliber. It can also be equipped with a slider mounted optic for more accuracy.

With the protest filed, the production for the M17 Handgun will have to be put on hold until the matter is resolved so that also means the first batch of the new U.S. Army’s official sidearm will have to be delayed.

We’ll monitor how this goes and shall post updates in the feature or news section once new information comes in.