Apparently the Canadian military wants a new handgun

[Wendell]

A contract is expected to be awarded by September with initial deliveries beginning in the summer of 2022, Department of National Defence spokesperson Jessica Lamirande said. The firearms will be modular, meaning they can be reconfigured for various roles. Attachments such as improved targeting systems can also be installed on the guns. The pistol program is considered by the Canadian Army as a priority as the number of working Browning Hi-Power handguns has significantly dwindled because of a lack of spare parts. The project had been stalled for years after small arms firms rejected in 2011 the federal government requirement that the new guns be built at Colt Canada in Kitchener, ON. In addition, the companies balked at the stipulation they had to turn over their proprietary firearms information to Colt, a firm that some saw as a competitor. Industry sources say that because international small arms companies were reluctant to even bid on the Canadian pistol project, the federal government had no choice but to drop the requirement for the guns to be manufactured by Colt in Kitchener.
https://www.thetelegram.com/news/can...bruary-536545/

[RJ]

The article mentions a 2016 procurement cost of $50M for 20,000 pistols. I’m not real good at math but that’s a unit price of $2,500, each, right? Are they nuts?

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Holsters, spare mags, training materials, training for support staff, trips to nice places for high ranked officers

[RJ]

Yeah, I'm familiar with through life costs on .mil contracts.

Seems like the Canadian Taxpayer is getting hosed. Why not use the MHS design from Sig? There'd be a yuge savings on non-recurring costs/NDIs. It'd be virtually COTS.

For comparison, here's a report of a not dissimilar decision by the USAF last year (M9 replacement instead of Hi Powers) for a run of 125,000 M18s at $22.1M. Unit cost: $177.

https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/202...4411592840668/

[Archer1440]

Yeah, I'm familiar with through life costs on .mil contracts.

Seems like the Canadian Taxpayer is getting hosed, eh.

Fixed that for you. Obligatory Bob and Doug McKenzie edit, eh.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Yeah, I'm familiar with through life costs on .mil contracts.

Seems like the Canadian Taxpayer is getting hosed. Why not use the MHS design from Sig? There'd be a yuge savings on non-recurring costs/NDIs. It'd be virtually COTS.

For comparison, here's a report of a not dissimilar decision by the USAF last year (M9 replacement instead of Hi Powers) for a run of 125,000 M18s at $22.1M. Unit cost: $177.

https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/202...4411592840668/

But in that scenario, how do we ensure that millions of dollars are transferred from the west to Quebec?

That is the overarching goal of essentially every federal spending program. You go buying pistols off the shelf in a clean, easy transaction, there's no need for everything to be sent to Quebec, evaluated in Quebec, warehoused in Quebec so that Quebeckers can disassemble them before shipping them to the Quebec Maison d'Assembly...

[Archer1440]

But in that scenario, how do we ensure that millions of dollars are transferred from the west to Quebec?

That is the overarching goal of essentially every federal spending program. You go buying pistols off the shelf in a clean, easy transaction, there's no need for everything to be sent to Quebec, evaluated in Quebec, warehoused in Quebec so that Quebeckers can disassemble them before shipping them to the Quebec Maison d'Assembly...

Well, perhaps it makes up for the billions of dollars (trillions in today’s money) transferred to the west from Montreal when companies fled Q when René Lévesque was at the height of his Parti Québécois shenanigans, and their efforts to turn Quebec into its own little third world socialist country.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

If by "the West" you mean Toronto in that scenario, then maybe so...but most westerners don't really claim Toronto, it being not in the west, and a frequent beneficiary of the world's longest cow, as we say here...fed the resources of the west, milked in the east.

[MattyD380]

What about some kind of Beretta 92D? Not sure if that meets the exact length of pull requirements... but it's DAO. It's definitely under NATO use. And Beretta has successfully produced them in other places for decades. "Modular" is kind of subjective, I guess. But the 92 platform has lots of variations/accessories/options.

5946... 92D... I could see it.

[TheNewbie]

What about some kind of Beretta 92D? Not sure if that meets the exact length of pull requirements... but it's DAO. It's definitely under NATO use. And Beretta has successfully produced them in other places for decades. "Modular" is kind of subjective, I guess. But the 92 platform has lots of variations/accessories/options.

5946... 92D... I could see it.

I think a reliable good and consistent factory QC P250 would be a great general issue pistol. Both to police and military.


If an organization feels the absolute need for a manual safety, they could put a massive TS on it so that you couldn’t fail to take it off if you tried.