RCMP Awards Contract to Glock for New Service Pistols

Glock Inc. has been awarded a contract to supply the RCMP with G45 pistols equipped with the Aimpoint Acro P-2 red dot sight. The award was publicly announced last week, 30 years after Mounties were issued their Smith & Wesson pistols and 10 years after the estimated lifespan of those pistols ended.

The Smith & Wesson pistols currently used by RCMP members were adopted in 1995 and given an estimated lifespan of 20 years. A formal request for proposals to replace them was not issued until late 2023. Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation, represents approximately 20,000 Mounties.

"This isn’t just about dollars, it’s about safety," Sauvé said. Sauvé said the Smith & Wessons were good guns but have been through a lot of wear. "We don't shoot a lot of people in Canada. We do shoot a lot of bullets because there's training, there's annual firearms qualifications," he said.

The Ontario Provincial Police procured their new service pistol in under two years. Sauvé pointed to that timeline as he lobbied for faster federal processes while on Parliament Hill last week. The National Police Federation is pitching three procurement-related asks ahead of the fall budget.

Those asks are establishing a public safety procurement strategy with firm timelines and public reporting similar to the defence industrial strategy, creating an expedited procurement stream for safety-critical equipment including firearms and body armour, and moving to lifecycle-managed, standing offer models so core equipment is replaced before expiry through national contracts.

Procurement delays have also affected the RCMP body-worn camera program. The program was first announced in 2020, with an original plan to roll out the cameras in 2021.