The U.S. Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard have all placed orders to purchase the Army's Modular Handgun System, according to Sig Sauer.
Military.com reported Wednesday that the Marine Corps had budgeted money in its proposed fiscal 2019 budget to purchase 35,000 MHSs: the Sig Sauer pistol the Army selected to replace the M9 9mm, made by Beretta USA.
The Army awarded Sig Sauer an MHS contract worth up to $580 million in January 2017. The other services are authorized to purchase the MHS through the Army contract, according to Tom Taylor, chief marketing officer for Sig Sauer.
"All services have been involved in MHS since its inception ... and they have all committed to ordering guns," Taylor said in an email to Military.com on Thursday. "The U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Coast Guard all have orders that will be fielded starting later this year and early next year."
The Army confirmed that the other services can go through it to buy the MHS.
"The other military services, who were involved in the entire acquisition process including source selection, can also procure XM17/XM18 Modular Handgun Systems under the Army contract with Sig Sauer," Debra Dawson, spokeswoman for Program Executive Office-Soldier, said in an email.
Miliary.com reached out to the Navy, the Air Force and the Coast Guard for comment but did not receive a reply by press time.
The Marine Corps said it would not comment on MHS at this time.
The Army's 10-year MHS agreement calls for Sig Sauer to supply the service with full-size XM17 and compact XM18 versions of its 9mm pistol. The striker-fired pistols can be outfitted with suppressors and accommodate standard and extended-capacity magazines. There is also an accessory rail for mounting accessories such as weapon lights.
The Army intends to purchase 195,000 MHS pistols, mostly in the full-size XM17 version.
Army officials first announced that all of the services intend to purchase the MHS at the National Defense Industrial Association's 2017 Armaments Systems Forum last May.
MHS quantities for each service have not been finalized, Taylor said.
This is not the first time the services have agreed to adopt a common pistol. The Army selected the M9 in 1985 to replace the .45 caliber 1911A1, and the M9 soon became the sidearm for entire U.S. military.
The Marine Corps fiscal 2019 budget request does not give a total dollar amount for the MHS, but lists the unit cost of 35,000 Sig Sauer MHS pistols at $180 each.
Army weapons officials, as well as Sig Sauer officials, have so far declined to talk about the unit cost for MHS.
-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
