Quiet Glock use by the U.S. military
Increasingly, various model Glocks are showing up overseas in the hands of the country’s elite forces, which could have interesting implications for the upcoming Army handgun contract.
Widespread adoption around the world
Its should be mentioned that the entire reason Glock handguns exist is that in the late 1970s Gaston Glock went vying for the Austrian Army contract to replace their 1950s era Steyr pistols with something more modern. The result, adopted as the Pistole 80 in Austria, was modified ever so slightly and sold on the world market as the first generation G17.
Since then the company has gone on to win contracts to supply the militaries of some of our closest allies to include France, Israel, Holland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden with various model Glocks.
In 2013, the British Army announced they were replacing their standard sidearm, the John Browning-designed Hi Power with the Glock 17. In all, the Queen decided to purchase some 25,000 new fourth Generation Glock 17s at a price of $14.5-million. This breaks down to about $580 per new pistol, which is slightly less than the MSRP of a new Glock 17. However, you can be sure that Gaston is probably throwing in a few extra magazines and spare parts as value added.
For law enforcement use in the U.S., the Glock is the weapon of choice more often than not. A recent survey of some 6,000 law enforcement officers from across the country conducted by a police website found that some 68 percent of all respondents carried Glocks and, further, an impressive 61 percent would choose the gun if given an option. This validates the company’s often-cited claim that approximately “65 percent of police departments in America already put a Glock police pistol in between them and the problem.”
Further, the Federal government loves Glocks, with most of the Department of Justice (FBI, DEA, ATF, etc.) issuing the .40S&W Glock 22 in various models over the past decades.
This likely led to the decision by the U.S. to buy over 100,000 Glocks for the new police forces of Afghanistan and Iraq in recent years.
And, very quietly, they have been popping up in service with Leathernecks and Joes at the sharp end.
