Sig Sauer pistol still in wide use across military after airman's death
The M18 pistol is produced by Sig Sauer as a military version of the company's P320, a model that has drawn lawsuits and attention in recent years after incidents where users alleged that the gun fired on its own. In military usage, a law enforcement training agency in Washington recently chronicled at least six possible unintentional discharges on or associated with military bases involving the M18 or M17, a slightly larger version of the handgun.
Concerns about the handgun were heightened last week when Airman Brayden Lovan, 21, was killed when his M18 discharged at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, according to Air Force officials. The circumstances around how the weapon fired are under investigation. Lovan was a security forces airman assigned to the 90th Security Forces Squadron, a role that required him to regularly carry a sidearm.
In the wake of Lovan's death, officials with Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees most units at F.E. Warren, temporarily paused use of the M18 across the command, pending an investigation for 'immediate safety concerns.' Since that announcement, several units under Air Combat Command, the service's largest major component, have also stopped using the M18, though not the entire command. The Air Combat Command pause was first reported by The War Zone.
Charles Hoffman, spokesperson for the Air Force Global Strike Command's safety office, told Task & Purpose that during the pause, Air Force security forces will carry the M4 rifle. Global Strike Command has just over 27,000 active duty airmen — less than 9% of the entire active duty Air Force — but duty weapons are relatively common in its units. The command oversees all of the service's nuclear weapons and the missiles and bombers tasked with delivering them. As such, armed personnel are a constant presence on Global Strike Command installations, and the command is infamous for its intense focus on security and safety issues.
'Sig has offered and will continue to offer any and all assistance necessary to the USAF's investigation of the F.E. Warren incident,' Phil Strader, vice president of consumer affairs for Sig Sauer, told Task & Purpose in a statement.
Design used in all military branches
The M17, a full-size variant of the pistol, and the M18, a compact version, have been the military's standard pistols issued to active and reserve troops for most of this decade, replacing the legacy M9 used since the 1980s. The two guns share firing components and vary mainly by the length of the barrel.
The Air Force announced in 2020 that all of its combat arms units would receive the M18, citing a 'more consistent trigger pull' and adjustable grips for different hand sizes.
The Air Force owns close to 75% of the military's inventory of roughly 165,000 M18 pistols, according to data provided by the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and procurement documents from the Navy. Exact numbers of M17s currently in use were not immediately available. The Army and Marine Corps indicated in testing and evaluation documents that they intended to buy several hundred thousand of the handguns. A January 2017 contract announcement included a $580 million contract with Sig Sauer to replace the Army's M9 by 2027.
Officials from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps told Task & Purpose that those services have no plans to pause use of the weapons.
'We have not seen any evidence that indicates design or manufacturing issues are present,' Meghan Stoltzfus, a Marine Corps spokesperson, said in a statement to Task & Purpose. She added that the M18 was 'rigorously tested' to Department of Defense standards and 'subject to extensive lot acceptance testing' with oversight by the Defense Contract Management Agency, Army and Marine Corps.
Discharge issue discovered during Army testing
The Department of Defense discovered unexpected discharge issues with the Sig Sauer handgun when the Army began operational testing for the M18 almost a decade ago. The service found that during drop testing with an empty primed cartridge inserted, the gun's striker struck the round's primer and caused a discharge. Army officials directed the company to correct the problem by implementing lightweight components in the trigger mechanism, according to a fiscal year 2017 operational test and evaluation report.
Follow-on testing 'validated' that the change 'corrected the deficiency and the pistol no longer fired when dropped,' the report stated, adding that the new version with the changes was submitted for production.
Sig Sauer conceded the early issues with the Army pistol, noting that testing 'above and beyond' national, state, global military and law enforcement standards found that 'after multiple drops, at certain angles and conditions, a potential discharge of the firearm may result when dropped.'
Strader said the M17 and M18 pistols are required to be equipped with a manual thumb safety, which is an option for commercial P320s.
'With that said, regarding the lawsuits around this platform, no one, including our engineers and the plaintiff's experts, have been able to replicate or prove a P320 can be fired by any method besides a trigger pull,' Strader said.
Lawsuits and law enforcement inquiries
The civilian version of the M18, the P320, has seen issues pop up in recent years, some of which have led to multi-million dollar lawsuits and decisions by local police departments to stop using the pistol. In November 2024, a Philadelphia jury awarded an Army veteran $11 million after his holstered Sig Sauer pistol went off while he was going down the stairs and caused a serious leg injury.
In June, Sig Sauer filed a lawsuit in Washington asking a state judge to reverse the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission's decision to ban police recruits from carrying the P320. The commission's working group of local law enforcement, training staff, and firearms instructors released a report in February on their decision to temporarily ban its use by police recruits.
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In their report, the Washington commission cited six incidents since 2021 with 'uncommanded' discharges involving the M17 and M18. The M18 incidents were:
In 2023, a Japanese security guard at Camp Foster, Okinawa, 'rested their right hand lightly on the rotating cover of a weapon holster' when their M18 discharged.
Also in 2023, at Camp Pendleton, California, an officer in the armory stopped at a clearing barrel to empty their M18. The officer pulled the pistol out of the holster while it was on safe and removed the magazine. A round discharged from the M18 into the clearing barrel. The officer was 'sure that they never touched the trigger of the M18,' and had 'ample weapons handling training,' according to the report.
In 2022, a service member was preparing for his shift at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, when his M18 discharged at his home. He was taken to the hospital for a penetrating gunshot wound with the bullet still 'lodged in his knee,' according to the incident report.
With the M17, previous incidents included:
A military police soldier at Fort Eustis, Virginia, in 2023 injured his foot after his pistol 'inadvertently discharged' after making contact with another officer's gun holster.
The gun of an Army civilian attending a law enforcement course in 2020 at Leesville Police Range in Louisiana discharged while he drew the pistol from his holster.
A service member attempting to holster his pistol in 2021 fired a round through his foot at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
Sig Sauer announced in 2020 it would offer free P320 upgrades that 'improve its safety, reliability and overall performance.' The changes reduced the weight of the gun's trigger, sear, and striker and added a mechanical disconnector, according to Sig Sauer's website on the program. The company states that 'minimal reported drop-related P320 incidents have occurred' in U.S. commercial and law enforcement markets in situations 'that appear to be outside of normal testing protocols.'
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