France’s Ministry of the Interior has announced the purchase of a new batch of SIG Sauer SIG ProSP2022 pistols for use by the National Gendarmerie. The contract worth 248,299 Euros (or $281,580) was announced in mid November.

The Ministry of the Interior’s procurement department, the Service de l’Achat, de l’Équipement et de la Logistique de la Sécurité Intérieure (SAELSI), handled the contract for the 580 pistols. These will supplement the over 200,000 reportedly originally ordered.

The National Gendarmerie is one of France’s two national police forces and is technically a branch of the French Armed Forces. The officers of the National Gendarmerie and National Police are both armed with the SIG Sauer SP2022, adopted in the early 2000s. The new contract is likely to replace older pistols and increase inventory.

The contract is being fulfilled by Equipol, which is a division of France’s Rivolier Security-Defense. Equipol offer a number of 9mm pistols, their website lists the P2022 along side the SIG Sauer P320 and the Turkish GİRSAN MC28 SAS.

The 580 P2022’s will be shipped with a storage case and padlock, a manual, an orange chamber flag, an oil bottle, a cleaning kit including swabs and a cleaning rod, as well as a lanyard. The pistols will ship with two 15 round magazines and a finger rest base plate. The pistols will be marked ‘MI’ to signify state ownership by the Ministry of the the Interior.

This is the second major firearms purchase made for the French police forces made this year. Back in July, we reported that the Ministry of the Interior selected the Heckler & Koch UMP as the standard issue carbine for bother Police Nationale and the Gendarmerie Nationale. Signing an initial contract, worth 3.2 million Euros (or $3,764,866) to procure around 2,600 submachine guns.

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