Sig Sauer, the maker of the U.S. Army’s Modular Handgun System, intends to sell a special, commercial version of the full-size MHS 9mm pistol.
“We are planning to do a limited release of about 5,000 of the Army variant of the M17 for the commercial market,” Tom Taylor, Sig Sauer’s chief marketing officer and executive vice president for commercial sales, told Military.com. “The timing is not finalized yet, but it looks to be late spring.”
The Army awarded Sig Sauer the MHS contract worth up to $580 million in January. The service launched its long-awaited MHS competition in late August 2015 to replace its Cold War-era M9 9mm pistol.
The selection of Sig Sauer formally ended Beretta’s 30-year hold on the Army’s sidearm market.
The 10-year agreement calls for Sig to supply the Army with full-size XM17 and compact XM18 versions of its 9mm pistol. The pistols will become the M17 and M18 after they are type-classified.
Read the rest here: https://www.military.com/kitup/2017/12/09/sig-sauer-offer-commercial-version-armys-new-sidearm.html
From the article:
*** The commercial version will be almost identical to the Army-issue, full-size MHS, except it will not have the anti-tamper mechanism for the striker action, nor will it have the special coatings on some of the internal parts that help it maintain lubricity under harsh conditions, Taylor said. ***
It pisses me off when manufacturers cut corners on quality in the products they put on the civilian market, even when there’s no unconstitutional “legal” requirement for them to do so. Are we to believe that only those who serve the Almighty Government are worthy of having those special coatings on the internal parts of this gun?
No, thanks. I’ll stick with H&K for my handguns.
That’s hype. It justifies the higher price sold to the government. So without features they probably charge the government out the a$$ for. The civilian price can be justified…if not still over priced. There’s car parts with more mechanical complexity then this thing and 1/10th the price.