Swiss go SIG, duh
It should be no surprise that Armasuisse, the Swiss Federal Office for Defence Procurement, has selected a new SIG Sauer pistol to replace the Pistole 75 (SIG P220), which has been in service for half a century. The P220 had replaced the Pistole 49 (SIG P210), which had been adopted in, well, 1949.
That should surprise no one, really.
What is a bit surprising, due to all the bad press, is that the SIG the Swiss selected for the new Pistole 25 will be the P320, and not a revamped P226 or P229– some of which are quite nice.
The P320 was downselected from five submitted designs and came out on top against the last two finalists, the Glock G45 Gen 5 and Heckler & Koch SFP9.
Importantly, SIG has agreed to local Swiss production of the P320s, with as many as 140,000 weapons to be made for the combined forces.
And the most interesting twist is the realization that, by the 2080s, if we are all still on this rock, surplus Swiss-issued P320s will be all the rage on the collector’s market.
The Pistole Modell 1949 in Swiss military service, one of the most collectible semi-auto pistols in the world.