The Armed Forces of the Netherlands will be receiving an order of 10,000 9x19mm NATO Gen 4 Glock 17s with the latest contract announced by the Dutch Ministry of Defense as reported by the Polish magazine Mil Mag. This comes after an initial purchase of 6,300 Gen 4s in the fall of 2016. Previously the Dutch were armed with the Browning 9x19mm Hi Power up until 1994 when they were replaced with Glock 17s sans a forend mounting rail. Glock 17s destined for Holland are specifically marked “NL” as a serial number prefix.

From Mil Mag-

The weapons were selected under negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice, because of technical reasons connected with the protection of exclusive rights. The supplier, Technical Bureau H. A. Muller (TBM) located in Herveld, was selected because it is the official Dutch representative of Austrian Glock.

Although the newly issued weapon itself will share the similar operational characteristics of weight, size, accuracy, and magazine capacity, there are a number of advantages Dutch soldiers will gain with the Gen 4 that will be replacing their Gen 2s. Soldiers will gain the ability to mount a weapon light, wider magazine release, and improved ergonomics when it comes to the grip, among numerous other minor design changes that come with the Glock generation upgrades. However, the light-bearing capability might be lost among all but special operations troops (such as MARSOF, but SOF troops tend to have separate purchasing channels anyways) due to the lack of an immediate need for a sidearm with light-bearing among rank and file troops in militaries all over the world.