New Army Handgun Solicitation.

[KevinB]

Part of the intent in this "system" is improved ammunition, and training.

The idea is that all 11X/03XX will get a pistol and a decent amount of ammunition to train - not 100k a year, but more than the 82ish rounds allocated now.

[breakingtime91]

Part of the intent in this "system" is improved ammunition, and training.

The idea is that all 11X/03XX will get a pistol and a decent amount of ammunition to train - not 100k a year, but more than the 82ish rounds allocated now.

interesting, didn't know this may be implemented for 03s..

[Jeep]

Part of the intent in this "system" is improved ammunition, and training.

The idea is that all 11X/03XX will get a pistol and a decent amount of ammunition to train - not 100k a year, but more than the 82ish rounds allocated now.

IT's funny how these things go in cycles. Back in WWI the idea was to give all infantrymen a pistol (it never completely worked out, but our guys did tend to have more pistols than most other armies). What I can't understand is why they need a new pistol to do that.

[jill546]

Why does the army need a pistol at all?

[Dave J]

Why does the army need a pistol at all?

Mostly for the same reason civilians do, to give people the ability to defend themselves against sudden and unexpected threats. Unfortunately, there are plenty of examples in the last few years of "green on blue" attacks, where individuals who were outwardly our allies turned out to be something else entirely.

Pistols are also really handy for people whose jobs involve confined spaces, like armored vehicle crewmen, and some other legitimate applications.

We don't win wars with pistols, and most of the time they're not that important. Occasionally, they are extremely important, at least at an individual level.

[DocGKR]

DaveJ--Well said.

[WDW]

I was of the mindset we didn't really need pistols either...but one day in 2005 in Ramadi I'll be damned if I didn't need one. They're not important until they are.

[TiroFijo]

Handguns are considered very important by the british in Irak/Afghanistan, and the idea behind the move to the new pistol (G17) was to issue a pistol to every trooper.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/j...-glock-pistols

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...e-attacks.html

[GardoneVT]

In Iraq , scuttlebutt is a curious cultural inversion happened with handguns.People weren't afraid of rifles, but pulling an M9 did wonders for aggressive crowd control. Apparently Saddam's henchmen drew handguns whenever someone was about To Bite The Dust and the culture responded to that.

[EPF]

Handguns are considered very important by the british in Irak/Afghanistan, and the idea behind the move to the new pistol (G17) was to issue a pistol to every trooper.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/j...-glock-pistols

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...e-attacks.html

The Brits don't issue a pistol to every soldier, even for a deployment. 25,000 pistols purchased for 130,000 +\- active and reserve forces. I believe the second article is referring to the carry condition of the issue weapons (mostly rifles) already carried everywhere by every coalition soldier, but previously unloaded. The new pistol was a simple modernization upgrade for a severely worn and outdated inventory.

I love media stories.....