It is finally official. The French Ministry of Armed Forces have ordered 74,596 Glock pistols in a contract worth over 44 Million Euros (about $49 Million USD).

The first Glock 17s have already been delivered and deliveries will continue until 2022. The new Glocks will replace the current Mac 50 and Pamas G1 (Beretta 92) pistols.

It is not yet confirmed which generation the Glock 17s selected will be or if they will have any adaptations requested by the French Army. According to Strategie & Technik the Glocks are Generation 5.

A French Army officer assigned to Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, fires an M9 Pistol as part of the German Armed Forces Badge for Military Proficiency competition at the Udari Range, near Camp Buehring, Kuwait, Oct. 16, 2018. (U.S. Army National Guard Photo by Spc. Jovi Prevot)

You can find more details about the pistols that are being replaced here: MAC Mle 1950 and PAMAS G1.

The Glock 17 has been adopted by dozens of militaries and hundreds of police forces around the world with a decades long track record. The British Army recently selected the Glock 17 to replace their Browning Hi-Powers. You can find more information about the Glock 17, on Glock’s website, here:

GLOCK 17 – The Original

Designed for professionals, the GLOCK 17 is trusted by law enforcement officers and military personnel around the globe because of its unsurpassed reliability, optimal magazine capacity of 17 rounds in the standard magazine and its low weight. With the signature “Safe Action” trigger system, the GLOCK 17 9 mm Luger pistol is safe, easy, and quick – precisely what you need in critical situations.

The press release also mentions that the sights have “night-time aiming aid capacity” (machine translated), but we don’t know if they are provided by Glock or another vendor at this time.

There are also training kits from UTM in the contract, UTM are UK and US (Suffolk, United Kingdom or New Jersey, USA) based small arms training specialists . You can check out UTM’s Glock 17 Blank Kit at this link, as well in the photo below.

The 9×19 mm ammunition will be provided by Sellier & Bellot a.s. You can find their 9×19 mm selection here.

The original press release, in French, can be found here. For your convenience TFB offers an machine-translated version below. Any links or highlighted text by the author to enhance:

The Ministry of the Armed Forces renews semi-automatic pistols for the French forces

Florence Parly welcomes the order of the new semi-automatic pistols for the French forces.

By 2022, more than 74,000 pistols will have been delivered. The first deliveries began at the end of 2019.

This equipment, essential to the combatant, embodies the efforts provided for by the Military Planning Law.

74,596 semi-automatic pistols (PSA) were ordered by the French Armaments Directorate. This contract was entrusted to the company Glock (pistol and night-time aiming aid capacity) which joined forces with the companies Sellier and Bellot (ammunition) and UTM (training kit).

These new generation pistols will replace those currently supplied: the PA MAC 50 (automatic pistols from the arms manufacturers of Châtellerault) which date from the 1950s, and the PAMAS G1 (automatic pistols from the arms factories of Saint-Etienne). The value of this contract is 44 million euros.

The three armies – land, air and navy – as well as certain joint services are concerned by this acquisition. The planned distribution is in the order of 80% of weapons for the army, 10% for the air force and 8% for the navy.

The key factors that led the Ministry of the Armed Forces to accept this offer are the reliability and robustness demonstrated during the tests, essential qualities for military equipment intended to be used in the event of rapid action and the need for self-protection.

The press release continues by placing the pistol order in the context of France’s recent larger push to overhaul their small arms inventory:

The adoption of these new semi-automatic pistols is part of a broader desire for new “small equipment” intended for the French forces:

The arrival of the assault rifle, which has been in delivery since 2017.

In 2020, 12,000 new HK416F rifles will arrive in the units.

The start of deliveries in 2020 of a new sniper rifle (SCAR, Special Combat Assault Riffle) for French snipers. More than 2,600 will be delivered by 2022.

The continuation of deliveries of the new trellises in the forces in 2020. 85,000 F3 flame retardant trellises will be perceived within the units, thus making it possible to equip from this year all the soldiers deployed in OPEX.

The delivery of 9mm composite burst and bulletproof helmets: in 2020, 25,000 helmets will be delivered.

Finally, 37,000 new generation bulletproof vests have already delivered between 2018 and 2019, the goal by 2025 being 96,800 deliveries within the forces.

These deliveries are essential to the mission of deployed soldiers, whose equipment must meet the best standards. The protection of the combatant is indeed one of the priorities of the policy led by Florence Parly.

FELIN System with the new HK 416F rifles (Credits: Alexandre SERPILLO – SIRPA Terre)

This picture was posted together with the press release, and offers an excellent opportunity to your practice French:

With regards to the FN SCAR H PR ‘Sniper Rifle’ also recently adopted by the French military, TFB will be back very soon with an in-depth article which covers all the essential information you need. Please check back soon!