[UPDATE: Confirmed- announcement from Glock below.) Mar 13, 2011 @ 23:06 I'm reading some informal reports from IWA that the Swiss have chosen to outfit their Army with 9mm Glock 17 (full size) and Glock 19 Glock 26 (compact) pistols. IWA is an international trade show for the hunting, sporting and military arms industry held annually in Nuremberg, Germany. It's the European equivalent of America's SHOT show.
May 3, 2011 @ 10:40 Glock got back to me with a statement explaining the selection was for the Swiss Army Special Forces. They'll be replacing their Sig 220 and Sig Pro pistols with Glock 17 and 26, both Gen4, beginning in 2012. (We mistakenly reported initially that they chose the Glock 19 as their compact pistol.) Swiss Army Recon (AAD 10) and Military Security Agency (MilSich) evaluated the pistols along with the Swiss national evaluation and procurement agency (armasuisse).
Hit the jump for Glock's statement, released via email today: more
Army Declares GLOCK as Winner of Evaluation for Special Forces Duty Weapon
"Smyrna, GA (May 3, 2011) – Today, GLOCK Ges.m.b.H. located in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria, announced that the Swiss Army has chosen GLOCK as the new service pistol for the Swiss Army Special Forces. The evaluation process was conducted by three independent elements of the Swiss Army: The Army Reconnaissance 10 (AAD 10: Armee Aufklärungsdetachement), a specialized unit of the Swiss Army (Special Forces) and the Swiss Military Security Agency (MilSich) tested the capabilities and efficiencies of the GLOCK pistol in the field of operations, while the technical evaluation was handled by the national evaluation and procurement agency "armasuisse".
The GLOCK Pistol models ultimately selected were the GLOCK 17 Gen4 and GLOCK 26 Gen4 9x19 semi automatic pistols, as well as the Blue GLOCK Training pistol, the GLOCK 17T Gen4 and GLOCK 26T Gen4 which will have the ability to fire both FX and ATK Force on Force marking ammunition.
The Swiss Army began their search for a new duty pistol in 2009, in hopes of finding a firearm that would provide greater soldier superiority and survivability in battle, lighter carry weight, simplicity of use under stress and uncomplicated maintenance. GLOCK pistols excelled during field testing as the Army found them superior in ease of handling which provided evaluators superior capability to score hits during target acquisition drills.
Initially, several suppliers were invited to provide pistols and accessories. With this decision, initial orders in 2012 will go to supply the Swiss Special Forces units, provided the Swiss Parliament has approved the proposed budget.
"GLOCK is very proud to have been competitively chosen by the Swiss Army over all other competition," said GLOCK Vice President Josh Dorsey. "GLOCK was chosen for this project due to the reliability and durability that have made GLOCK pistols famous. GLOCK's focus remains on providing safe, simple and fast pistols to those that go in harm's way. Our firearms are designed for these individuals to succeed and survive in any situation."
The first round of GLOCK pistols will be issued to replace the existing SIG 220 and SIG Pro pistols being de-commissioned."
Photo: Glock
