B&T have announced that their Universal Service Weapon pistol carbine has been used during the Dutch Korps Mariniers (Royal Dutch Marines) annual shooting competition with friendly NATO forces.

Held in December at the Dutch Navy’s base in Den Helder, in the north of the Netherlands, the competition saw 24 teams from 19 nations compete. The course of fire traditionally includes pistol and service rifle stages but this year the Korps Mariniers added an extra surprise stage using a weapon unfamiliar to all competing – the B&T USW.

The USW is a 9x19mm semi-automatic pistol with a folding stock intended to be a compact side arm, fitted with an Aimpoint Nano, capable of more accurate fire for law enforcement and security personnel. TFB covered it in more detail, back in 2016, here.

The course of fire was carried out on a 25m range with targets downsized to simulate 50m and B&T claim that “all participants scored better hits with the USW than with their issued service pistol.”

Here’s B&T’s press release on the competition:

Every year, the Dutch Korps Mariniers, the Royal Dutch Marines invites friendly and NATO forces for a shooting competition in Den Helder. In 2017 it was in December with a total of 24 teams, coming from 19 nations. The competition is designed that each team shoots a pistol and assault rifle course. This year there was an aditional surprise stage, that has to be shot with an unfamiliar weapon, a gun that is not issued with any of the participating forces. This year the organizers chose the B&T USW.

Each participant had to shoot a course of fire with the USW while the clock was ticking.  To make it more challenging, downsized targets were used to simulate an enemy at 50m on the 25m range.

This would normally be a tough challenge on first sight, but then again, due to the features of the USW, it became a rather easy task.  It was to the almost 100 participants a nice surprise that there were excellent results. This showed on the good scores and happy faces afterwards. Due to the integrated folding stock and the Aimpoint Nano red dot sight first round hits at the “50m“ targets came easy, even for shooters unfamiliar with the USW.

All participants scored better hits with the USW than with their issued service pistol.

Sadly, B&T don’t let us know who won the friendly competition.

Source:

‘Surprise Competition With the USW at the Dutch Marines’, B&T, 08/01/18, Retrieved from: www.bt-ag.ch/site/eng/news