Under the authority of the 2016 Defense Authorization Bill, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has committed to “rip apart” the current procurement procedure for the Modular Handgun System that would replace the 9 mm Beretta. The process, ongoing since at least 2011, has cost roughly $580 million, involved more 360 pages of paperwork, and included a testing process lasting two years.
Milley said his team, which has met several times over the past six to eight weeks, could make a determination within weeks on a new way forward.
“We’re going to make it right for the soldiers and the taxpayer …” Milley said before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The system’s been very frustrating in the sense of lots of paperwork, lots of bureaucracy, ridiculous amounts of time: two years of testing and $17 million to do a test. … We’re going to make it better.”
