Air Force Global Strike Command has pulled Sig Sauer M18 pistols from use following the July 20 death of an airman at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming.
The airman was active-duty and assigned to the 90th Security Forces Squadron at the time of the fatal incident, the 90th Missile Wing confirmed this week. Further details, including the airman’s name and cause of death, are currently being withheld.
The service’s decision to withdraw the M18 pistol from use in the immediate aftermath of the airman’s death is pending an investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, as well as a safety inspection of the handgun.
A leaked memo dated July 21 called for the M18 to be pulled from use “for all operational and training activities” immediately and replaced by the M-4 rifle until further notice. It also calls for “100% inspections of all Wing-assigned M18 weapons systems” by Combat Arms personnel.
The memo was confirmed as authentic by Charles Hoffman, an AFGSC spokesperson, who said the pause would remain throughout the investigations “out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the safety and security of our personnel,” according to Task & Purpose.
The M18 pistol is one of two versions of the Sig Sauer P320 handgun — the M18 and M17 — adopted as a standard sidearm by all branches of the U.S. military beginning in 2017. Over the years, the P320 has been subject to numerous allegations of unintentional injuries caused by accidental firings and purported design flaws — allegations which Sig Sauer strongly denies.
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“The P320 CANNOT, under any circumstances, discharge without a trigger pull — that is a fact. The allegations against the P320 are nothing more than individuals seeking to profit or avoid personal responsibility,” Sig Sauer stated in a March 7 release.
However, the P320 has led to numerous lawsuits and was removed from use by a series of law enforcement agencies and police departments, including the Dallas Police Department, the Milwaukee Police Department and Philadelphia transit police.
The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, responsible for training law enforcement officers statewide, has gone so far as to place a ban on the P320 from its facilities.
Most recently, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) moved to drop Sig Sauer P320 pistols in favor of swiftly replacing them with GLOCK 19 MOS. An ICE memo dated July 9 stated that “all models of the SIG Sauer P320” were now off limits for ICE agents. It called for the purchase of replacement sidearms “as soon as is practicable.”
Zita Ballinger Fletcher previously served as editor of Military History Quarterly and Vietnam magazines and as the historian of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She holds an M.A. with distinction in military history.
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