The German state of Saxony-Anhalt have announced the adoption of the Glock 46 as their next police sidearm. The new Glocks will replace Saxony-Anhalt police’s current SIG Sauer P6s. The SIG’ have been in service for nearly 30 years and nearly 6,500 new pistols will be needed to replace them. The contract represents the first time a Glock has been adopted as a standard issue side arm by a German police force.

First adopted by in the late 1970s when various German state police forces adopted pistols including Walther’s P5, SIG-Sauer entered the P225 (which became the P6 when in service) and Heckler & Koch submitted their PSP or P7. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, Saxony-Anhalt state police adopted the P6, replacing their Soviet Makarov PMs.

Saxony-Anhalt state police has around 6,400 officers who are armed so the contract is a significant one. The choice of the Austrian Glock over the German HK, popular with many other German police forces, comes as little surprise as the when the Glock 46 first appeared back in 2017, it was described as being specially developed for German police trials.

The Glock 46 was developed to meet a set of very specific German state/federal requirements, known as TR 2008 (Technische Richtlinie für Pistolen im Kaliber 9x19mm der Polizeien der Länder und des Bundes). Which required a trigger pull of more than 30N and and a trigger with between 10 and 15mm of travel. The new Glock 46 has a 35N or 7.9 lbf trigger pull and 11mm of travel.

Externally, it look like Glock’s other Gen 5 pistols but the most interesting feature of the Glock 46 is that, unlike other Glocks, it uses a rotating barrel locking method rather than the standard Browning-style tilting barrel system. The German media stress this is rotating barrel offers better accuracy. It can also be disassembled without pulling the trigger, which was a police requirement, and has a more prominent beavertail frame. The Glock 46 is chambered in 9x19mm and has a 15 round magazine, front slide serrations and a new feature not seen on earlier photos, what appears to be a frame mounted decocker/safety.

The new pistol was successfully tested at the German proof institute in Ulm and was certified in December 2018. Head of the Federal German Criminal Investigation Bureau (BDK), Peter Meißner, said: “We consider it a correct decision in terms of content, that the country has opted for the Glock.” While Wolfgang Ladebeck, of the German police union said: “That’s absolutely a sure-footed weapon, which we hope to never use.”

The contract is reported to be worth 8.6 million Euros or $9.8 million, with the first 2,500 pistols to be delivered during 2019 with fully delivery of over 8,500 pistols expected to be completed by 2021. Trainee police officers at Saxony-Anhalt’s police college. The Glock 46 is not currently commercially available in Europe and there are no plans for the Glock 46 to be released in the US at this time.

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