From a Swiss Wagon Factory to the US Army's Holster: The Untold Rise of SIG Sauer
In January 2017, SIG Sauer beat Glock, Beretta, FN, and Smith & Wesson to win the U.S. Army's Modular Handgun System contract — a deal worth up to $580 million and the right to arm the American military with its next standard sidearm, the M17.
But the story doesn't start there. It starts in 1853, in a Swiss factory that built railway wagons, founded by three men who happened to be good enough engineers to win a rifle competition. It runs through a 270-year-old German gunmaker and the wartime history it can't erase, a Swiss export law that forced two countries into one brand, and the legendary P226 — the pistol that won the 1984 XM9 trials on merit and lost the contract on total package price.
This is how a near-bankrupt importer with 130 employees in 2004 became the company that arms the U.S. Army today — and why the win that explains everything was really a debt collected three decades late.
We cover:
— The 1853 wagon factory and the rifle contract that created "SIG"
— J.P. Sauer & Sohn, the 1751 German gunmaker, and the part of the record that doesn't disappear
— The P210, Swiss export law, and the marriage that made "SIG Sauer"
— The 1985 XM9 defeat: how SIG brought the cheaper gun and still lost
— Ron Cohen, the 2004 near-collapse, and the decision that saved the company
— The P320, the fire control unit, and why it was built for a military buyer
— January 19, 2017: the $580 million win, the $207-per-pistol bid, and the Glock protest
— The shadow over the triumph: the P320 discharge controversy, in its own words and its critics'
No brand deals. No sponsors. Just the documented story, year by year.
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