Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Smith & Wesson Takes Aim on Army Pistol Contract

For Springfield gun maker Smith & Wesson Holding Corp., the target doesn’t get any bigger than this.
The Army is shopping for hundreds of thousands of handguns for officers, military police, and other soldiers, in the service’s biggest wholesale pistol replacement in a generation. It’s a rare shot at a lucrative new contract during a period of reduced defense spending, and it could be just the seed of a money tree.
Gun parts in the assembly area at the Smith & Wesson 
manufacturing plant in Springfield, Mass.
If other military branches follow suit, as some specialists expect, the Pentagon’s upfront order could approach 500,000 weapons. Including ammunition and accessories, the initial deal could be more than $500 million — with additional payments likely to follow, as the military often rolls over contracts for years to come. The Army’s current handgun supplier, Italian manufacturer Beretta, has held the contract since 1985.
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Beyond a slice of the federal defense budget, the Army handgun contract will give the winning manufacturer considerable clout in selling to police departments, foreign militaries, and civilian gun owners.
“I don’t think you can overstate the importance of a contract like this to a pistol maker,” said Brian Anse Patrick, a communications professor at the University of Toledo who studies guns in popular culture.
Smith & Wesson has shown that it’s serious about the competition. Shortly after the Army published a draft request for proposals last fall, the company said it would partner with defense giant General Dynamics Corp., a veteran of Washington’s contract wars, to pursue the handgun deal. Most other manufacturers have kept mum about their interest.
Chief executive James Debney said in a statement at the time that General Dynamics “brings us a wealth of experience . . . in federal government contracting.”
The company declined to comment further, so it’s unclear how winning the contract would affect employment in Springfield, where Smith & Wesson has about 1,500 workers and does most of its manufacturing. But when Smith & Wesson tripled pistol manufacturing between 2010 and 2013, churning out roughly 600,000 more guns per year, the company added 350 employees.
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