Canadian troopers — and finally sailors, aircrew and army police — might be getting new pistols to exchange their Second World War-era handguns, the Department of National Defence (DND) mentioned Friday.
And federal procurement officers have chosen the SIG Sauer P320. The firearm has been the topic of a number of lawsuits within the United States and an inner investigation by the Canadian Special Forces — an investigation that was launched after a soldier was wounded in a misfire incident in November 2020.
The $3.2 million US contract for new pistols and holsters was awarded to M.D. Charlton Co. Ltd. of Victoria, B.C., the licensed distributor of the weapon in Canada.
The preliminary contract entails the acquisition of 7,000 pistols with an choice to buy as much as 9,500 extra. The pistols are being given a Canadian designation of C22.
If the complete contact is exercised, the associated fee of the deal — with coaching and spares — may exceed $7.6 million.
The new handgun replaces the Browning Hi-Power semi-automatic pistol. Delivery of the new weapons is predicted to start subsequent year.
The DND assertion saying the acquisition cited the truth that the “Sig Sauer P320 is in use with a number of militaries all over the world, together with Denmark, France and the United States.”
Last year, Canadian Special Forces and DND carried out an investigation right into a misfire incident involving the P320 and Canada’s elite commandos throughout vary coaching.
The soldier, belonging to Joint Task Force 2 (JTF-2), was hit within the leg and suffered a flesh wound within the accident, which came about on Nov. 5, 2020 on a firing vary at Dwyer Hill outdoors Ottawa, the unit’s principal base.
CBC News reported on the accident in an unique story in February 2021.
The particular forces had simply began utilizing the pistol when the incident occurred. The weapon was withdrawn briefly from service, however was reinstated earlier this year after an investigation cleared the pistol to be used.
At the time of the preliminary CBC News report, the weapon’s American producer claimed the particular forces soldier wounded within the unintended discharge was utilizing the incorrect holster.
Initial complaints from some customers of the SIG P320, which has been manufactured since 2014, concerned claims that the weapon went off with out the set off being pulled.
SIG Sauer, a German weapons maker with a U.S. headquarters in Newington, N.H., upgraded the weapon in 2017. That didn’t cease a sequence of lawsuits — most of them launched by injured U.S. legislation enforcement members. Some of these lawsuits are ongoing.
The firm settled a category motion lawsuit in 2020 associated to weapons that had not been upgraded. In court docket papers filed in relation to the settlement, SIG Sauer maintained that the P320 is protected and pointed to its free voluntary modifications, which swap out sure parts of the gun.
Last month, a U.S. federal district court docket decide in New Hampshire rejected one other proposed class motion lawsuit filed by an Arizona gun proprietor who argued that his pistol misplaced worth as a result of alleged design flaw involving the weapon’s set off.