James nailed it, no M9's. And to add salt to the wound, Clinton had the 1911's ground up for scrap. First he killed the CMP, then he had the contract running for 24/7 operations to get rid of them. No more Singers, Union Switch, nada. Gone forever. Over 250K disappeared.
The M9's won't likely be given away as military support precisely because the 450,000 Berettas from that recent contract were. They didn't replace what we had, they were given away to Iraq and others.
Seriously, I always thought a single multi-caliber platform such as the Glock or M&P which allows you to train on one system and tailor hand sizes and calibers as needed would be a logical choice.
MHS is a lot more about this - and a steel frame 1911 can't even begin to do that. You can't have the user or unit armorer change out the backstrap at that moment to fit, you can't just swap a different sized slide on any lower, etc. It will take the kind of close quality control to get parts to interchange, which the 1911 has never ever enjoyed. And it will likely have to stay inside one caliber for the kit, the issue with the larger calibers is that too many were transplanted to the 9mm without reengineering and that is why they don't hold up well. The Army has NEVER offered alternate calibers in their firearms, and even more tightly restricted the ammo load to a single specific recipe in order to maximize reliability. We already read to often about WWB not cycling correctly in M4geries, the whole point to Army ammo is to use a single high quality round exclusively because all the weapons are tuned to it alone. That is how you get things to work, not by making it a one size fits all and accepting a huge number of problems.
A system of two, maybe three different frames with different grip lengths, slides and barrels the same, alternate backstraps, a pic rail on the front, and the service will get what they need - across the board. But the unit? Nope. It's driven by MTOE - an officer or MP carrying a holstered gun gets the full size duty version and no other parts are authorized. The benefit for the maker is they can use a lot of the same machinery, the benefit for the service is they will reduce the number of different sources - but the disadvantage is that there will be only the one. That still won't affect the special units, tho, as they get what they want when they want.
So, the General and CID can have the cut down version, the troops that carry still get the big duty pistols and very little will have actually changed.
That is if the project isn't actually a sacrificial lamb for the budget process. The rule is ask for more than you need, and then you get what you really want. I see the project as something that won't survive the next budget battle and the service crying some crocodile tears over it complaining they need to spend less on keeping the old fleet going. But the track record? They have been there and can do it. The 1911 and B52 kept going, in some cases barely a shell of what they originally were as parts were continuously replaced. We've seen M16's become A1's, and many of both are still in service with the Air Force, too. Some very old Hydramatics were noted floating around overseas with some units, in great condition.
Much ado about nothing, I won't be surprised to read the program cancelled after a few prototypes get made and we gush over them. It's all about the dog and pony show, replacing a minor side arm in a major budget slashing period of history is not likely.
