Thread by @TrentTelenko

On the morning of 20 July 2025, a AFGSC airman at Minot AFB took his M18, still inside it's issued holster; and placed it on a desk.

It then went off, struck him in chest, and killed him

AFGSC issued a halt order on 21 July 2025 for use of M17/18 Modular Handgun System.

1/

As an ex-DoD procurement official, that letter is a procurement killing hammer.

This is going to hit SIG Sauer like a moderate sized asteroid in terms of DCMA corrective actions requests or "CAR."

2/

This AFGSC halt use order letter will be grounds for a level three corrective action request (CAR).

A DCMA level III CAR is defined as follows:

"A Level III Corrective Action Request (CAR) issued by the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) is a serious action taken when there are significant contractual nonconformities.

It is directed to the supplier's top management and is just one step below the possibility of contract suspension or termination.

This type of CAR serves as a management tool to address critical issues that need immediate attention."

3/

Getting someone killed in the way the M18 pistol was described as doing is usually treated as a "significant contractual nonconformity requiring root cause corrective action" by DCMA.

I expect an immediate level II DCMA CAR was issued.

4/

Additional data from AFGSC will be needed, but I think a draft of a level III CAR is now sitting inside a DCMA computer.

If SIG Sauer plays games in replying to the root cause deficiency investigation, a Level IV CAR becomes a possibility.

5/

DCMA defines a Level IV as follows:

"Level 4 Corrective Action Request is provided when a Level 3 request has not resolved the situation.

The Defense Department may now suggest that progress payments will be stopped or that products or services may no longer be accepted."

6/

The M17/18 Modular Handgun System (MHS) is a US Army weapon system being produced by Sig Sauer that is to replace the Beretta M9/11 pistol.

It has had a troubled bureaucratic history highlighted by the Congression Research Service in 2018 & has become a "joint" procurement.
7/

Then Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley reportedly stated in a March 10, 2015, address,

“We're not figuring out the next lunar landing. This is a pistol. Two years to test? At $17 million?
You give me $17 million on a credit card, and I'll call Cabela's tonight, and I'll outfit every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine with a pistol for $17 million.
And I'll get a discount on a bulk buy.”

8/

A report from the late Senator John McCain, titled
"America’s Most Wasted: Army’s Costly Misfire," highlighted a number of MHS issues, including
- length of procurement effort,
-length of time the Beretta had been in service,
- lack of clarity within the request for proposal (RFP) regarding weapon caliber, and
- concerns over having a single vendor for both the weapon and ammunition.
9/

However, the AFGSC investigation turns out.

You can expect another round of the usual "failed $500 million procurement" stories from the usual suspects w/o context on the DoD processes involved in identifying & fixing the nonconformances involved in this airman's death.

10/10

P.S.

This is a link to the Congressional research Service report mentioned up thread.

congress.gov/crs_external_p…