Joint Combat Pistol

The Joint Combat Pistol was the name for a former US program for a new military sidearm to replace the M9 Pistol, extant from late 2005 to early 2006. The program was started in 2005 and run by USSOCOM. It is the result of a merger of two earlier programs, the army's Future Handgun System (FHS) and the Special Operations Forces Combat Pistol. Current requirements for the JCP include being chambered for caliber .45 ACP, having an integrated Picatinny rail, including day/night sights, and being capable of accepting a suppressor.

On March 10, 2006 a modification to the earlier request was made, changing the name from Joint Combat Pistol to Combat Pistol. The number of pistols sought was reduced from 645,000 handguns to 50,000. This effectively reverted to the SOF Combat Pistol program in terms of its scale, as the army dropped its participation. In the autumn of 2006, the Combat Pistol (CP) program was suspended indefinitely.

In a 2007 supplemental session, the congressional defense sub-committee appropriated $5 million to a Joint Combat Pistol study.

A new cross-service US military sidearm is a notable event in that there have been only two major adoption programs over a 100-year span of military history. While new sidearms were adopted at a fairly steady pace in the late 19th century, the 20th century yielded only the M1911 (the result of a 1900 program) and the M9 (the result of a 1980s program). The previous adoption took over a decade, involved several acts of Congress and multiple lawsuits, and stirred up great controversy. The current program might have been shelved (such as the XM8 rifle program) or result in few problems, though there is a great deal of potential for controversy. The short-lived JCP program was not an exception, only surviving a few months before being drastically scaled back and renamed. Its successor, the Combat Pistol program fared even worse, being halted just a few months later.

This was based on original solicitation, which was later modified, and finally, heavily changed in March 2006, with the program renamed to Combat Pistol.

While this is the max procurement, in comparison the initial order for M9 pistols was for 300,000 pistols (followed by more later).

A Q&A listed the following projected dates:

A large variety of .45 ACP pistols were entered into the competition. These include the:

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