Detonics thinks that it is in the running for the Army's new sidearm

[farscott]

When Mr. Siddle realizes that S&W had to join forces with General Dynamics to attempt to win a DoD handgun contract, he might begin to understand what a monumental undertaking the DoD service pistol/MHS procurement really is. DFARS/DoD procurement is a world unto itself, and there is a lot more to a winning bid than a good design -- assuming he had one.

[Nephrology]

I had a buddy that carried a Detonics - one of the very compact 1911 -style pistols they made with the rear sight placed nonsensically far forward on the slide. For the life of me I can't remember if it ever made it through a mag without a malfunction. eventually he ditched it for a glock. thankfully.

[RevolverRob]

Not that I believe in sympathetic magic, but the hypothetical situation of Colt's going after this pistol would be the surest proof that I can think of that it's somehow fatally flawed.

Let's not forget what happened the last time Colt's hitched their wagon to their own execution of an outside service pistol design...

But what about the time before that when they licensed that Browning patent....that seems to have worked rather well.

How about the Caracal? Is that still broken? The Strike One? Those have to be better than the Detonics garbage.

-Rob

[Kyle Reese]

But what about the time before that when they licensed that Browning patent....that seems to have worked rather well.

How about the Caracal? Is that still broken? The Strike One? Those have to be better than the Detonics garbage.

-Rob

I think that the Caracal is still kaput.

[BehindBlueI's]

Like Colt? (where is the rolling on the floor laughing smiley around this place?)

Although, if the Detonics design really was a potential for the (non-existent) US Army Trials, Colt could do worse than immediately buy Detonics and this design (or at least lease it) and enter it as the Colt Modular Pistol 45. If they aren't stupid (who are we kidding here?)...they'd build a bunch for public consumption and sell them for $995/each and ship them with three mags, a double paddle mag pouch, and a stupid Derpa-inspired holster, and the guns would come in FDE, Foliage Green, and Tactical Tuxedo Black (to be carried by James Bond in his newest film).

At least it would actually save Colt.

-Rob

I wasn't interested until "tactical tuxedo black" became an option. Who do I send my money too?

[LittleLebowski]

Stolen from ARF on this subject:

Everyone thinks they have something great that the DoD wants until you start to throw in MIL-STD-1472, MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-3029, and lets just pepper in some ANSI/SAAMI tests as well. Then there's the actual requirements (materials, features, functions, failure rates etc), requirements decomposition, requirements tractability, 1st article testing, verification, and validation of all the requirements. And that's just to exit Engineering and Manufacturing Development at Milestone C.

Multi-service weapons system? HERE'S COMES JCIDS ALL UP IN THIS MOTHERFUCKER!

Then we've got that pesky life-cycle management/Integrated Logistics Support for operations and maintenance to supply spare parts.

That entire company couldn't even handle the amount of CDRL/SDRL's that would come with an acquisition like this.

[Chuck Haggard]

Although, sadly, in today's procurement environment, Carbine William's baby would have been dead in the water from the get-go, etc.

[JMS]

good enough for John Rourke

[Urban_Redneck]

I think that the Caracal is still kaput.

The latest March 2015 recall gave the option for exchanging a recalled pistol for a "New & Improved" fullsize due to arrive in the US May 2015.

I really, really, enjoyed the Caracal, but, I took the money this time. Only time will tell whether they have sorted out their difficulties.

[Tamara]

I had a buddy that carried a Detonics - one of the very compact 1911 -style pistols they made with the rear sight placed nonsensically far forward on the slide. For the life of me I can't remember if it ever made it through a mag without a malfunction.

The early Seattle Detonics Combat Master I had is one of only two 1911-pattern pistols I've owned that could not be made to function reliably even with ball ammo no matter what we tried. (The other was a GI Colt top end on a very early ParaOrd frame kit, from back before they even made complete guns.) It was the very definition of a wretched pulsating ball of suck and fail.