Polish Prison Service Purchase Beretta ARX160A3 Carbines

by Matthew Moss

Published: August 20th, 2018

Members of the Polish Prison Service training with PM-06 Submachine Guns (SW)

The Polish Prison Service has signed a contract to procure 350 semi automatic Beretta ARX160A3 carbines. These have been procured through a Polish company UMO. The Beretta reportedly beat out a number of other competitors to win the contract.

The Polish prison service, the Służba Więzienna, are under the control of the Polish Ministry of Justice and initially put out a tender for carbines in May 2018. Six submissions were offered with only four reportedly being tested. According to MilMag, the Beretta beat out submissions from FB Radom who offered the MSBS 5.56K, Griffin Group Defense offered the FN SCAR-L and CZ offered the BREN 2 while B&T and LMT Rifles were not evaluated. Testing was completed in July and the contract awarded in August with fulfil,Met scheduled by October.

Beretta's ARX160A3, introduced in 2013 (Beretta Defense)

The contract, worth 2,511,950.2 złoty or $664,551, was weighed 60% toward price with the UMO – Beretta offer narrowly beating out the submission from FB Radom. The contract marks Beretta’s first sales to Poland. The Warsaw-based UMO are a military hardware dealer who, according to their website, have facilitated deals and provided equipment to both Poland’s Special Forces and the Polish Police. The company represents a number of foreign companies in Poland, including Beretta.

The purchase of the new rifles also coincides with the beginning of the Służba Więzienna‘s transition to a new uniform. The new rifles will join the prison service’s current issue weapons that include shotguns from Winchester and Mossberg (the 500 series purchased earlier this year), the Walther P-99 pistol, and the 9x19mm PM-06 submachine gun.

Beretta will ship the carbines with a sling, two 30 round magazines, a cleaning kit and a user manual. MilMag has suggested the contract unit price is as much as $1,900, though this seems very high. The contract states that the 350 semi-automatic ARX160A3s will be delivered within 90 days, or before the 31st of October.

Sources:

‘Poland-Warsaw: Rifles, 2018/S 153-350865, Contract award notice’, 10/08/18, ( source)

‘Prison Service with ARX 160A3’ MilMag, 16/08/18, ( source)

#Beretta #Europe #LawEnforcement #PolishPrisonService #BerettaARX160

Matthew Moss

Managing Editor: TheFirearmBlog.com & Overt Defense.com. Matt is a British historian specialising in small arms development and military history. He has written several books and for a variety of publications in both the US and UK. Matt is also runs The Armourer's Bench, a video series on historically significant small arms. Here on TFB he covers product and current military small arms news. Reach Matt at: matt@thefirearmblog.com

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8 of 29 comments

Andygoldusa . on Aug 21, 2018

Am I incorrect in that the 160 is a .22LR and not a .223 caliber?
http://www.beretta.com/en-u...

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- Markej4801 on Aug 22, 2018
  
  @andygoldusa . The ARX160 was originally produced as a military long gun and was developed as a 5.56 platform with the expectation of other chamberings to follow (the 300AAC was originally to be released concurrently to the 5.56). When released to the American public, the 160 designation was kept to the .22LR and the 5.56 gun was designated as ARX100. Hope this helps
  
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- Andygoldusa . on Aug 22, 2018
  
  @markej4801 Thanks
  
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Aaron Hsu on Aug 21, 2018

I'm glad to see Beretta winning some more contracts on this. The ARX platform is a really great platform that is under-appreciated here in the U.S. Like many of Beretta's products, it's often judged mostly on looks, despite bringing a lot to the table and being a really great rifle to "live with" from a practical standpoint.

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- Markej4801 on Aug 21, 2018
  
  @Aaron Hsu Agreed, Aaron, but when will they finally get around to producing the promised 300AAC barrel?!? It was promised with the release of the gun, but has not seen the light of day.
  
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- Aaron Hsu on Aug 21, 2018
  
  @markej4801 Indeed! I think a few things have caused the delay. Firstly, the move to the new factory was a serious impediment to many of their products. Secondly, they are really hitting the APX line heavily and regularly releasing new features and products there, which has to be keeping them busy. Thirdly, the "black rifle" market is so soft right now, it is probably a difficult sell for them to be convinced that introducing the barrels in this market is going to be profitable.
  Looking at what Ernest Langdon has said about their QC procedures, it's not inexpensive for them to release a new product (even just changing the sights on a pistol can result in 30,000 rounds at least for durability testing) change, meaning that they won't do it unless there is enough of a market for them to recoup their development costs.
  The .300 AAC is such a niche that it's hard to imagine how many they would have to sell in order to be profitable with them. You could make the case that having those barrels would help to sell ARX rifles, which would be true, but the question is how many they would be able to sell and at what price. It's very, very difficult to compete against the entrenched AR platforms right now, and there are good .300 AAC options out for ARs.
  The ARX is an incremental improvement (a significant one, IMO) to the traditional AK or AR, but when you can buy ARs for 400 or 500 USD and the ARX is 800 - 1200 USD, in a soft "buyers" market, you have to wonder how willing the ultra-conservative Beretta is going to be about something like that.
  
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- Markej4801 on Aug 21, 2018
  
  @Aaron Hsu All points are 100% spot on. The Blackout barrel seems to be a huge thing now and is not expected to go away anytime soon. If they had delivered as promised, I suspect they would have found a HUGE market for the secondary barrel (I, for one, would have bought one in an instant). Nowadays, though, I have to agree with you that it is questionable. Too bad they didn't put it out in a timely fashion--Sig has now made this market theirs with the MCX/MPX series. I hope Sig is able to make it go since that would be a big draw for their platform. I also love their products and am thinking/lusting over them. :)
  
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- Aaron Hsu on Aug 21, 2018
  
  @markej4801 I do think they would have had a much better time of it if they would have been able to get the factory up and running quickly. That would have allowed them the freedom to release the barrels before the rifle slump.
  On the other hand, I am not a big fan of the MCX/MPX line. I think Beretta could easily have a technically competitive product in their ARX line that would deliver a lot over the MCX/MPX line if they released, say, .300 AAC and 6.8 SPC as they had originally intended. I actually think the 7.62x39mm barrels make a lot of sense right now, because a good AK is a lot of money, but the ARX is literally a better AK in just about every way. If Beretta would have marketed the ARX as being a better AK as well as a better AR, then they might have been able to bring over a few other to their platform.
  On the other hand, if Beretta can keep the ARX platform alive long enough to get out of the slump and to mature the offerings a bit, I'm not convinced that it wouldn't still be a serious contender. I just think that it's a hard sell right now, but new platforms take time to settle into their roles, and I can easily see the ARX coming into its own later down the road if they don't kill off the platform.
  
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Polish Prison Service Purchase Beretta ARX160A3 Carbines

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