German gun maker wins TSA contract to arm airline pilots
The Transportation Security Administration has selected the German firearms manufacturer Heckler & Koch to supply the .40-caliber semiautomatic handguns the agency will use to train and arm commercial airline pilots.
A company spokesman confirmed the contract award Friday. TSA notified bidders by fax late Thursday. TSA officials were unable to comment as of Friday afternoon.
Although losing bidders may still file a protest, the award caps a procurement effort that proved troublesome for TSA, which ran afoul of leading handgun manufacturers in its attempt to buy handguns for its next class of pilots, scheduled to begin Sunday.
CongressDaily reported Wednesday that gun makers who expected "full and open competition" complained that TSA appeared to bow to congressional and other outside pressures at different stages of the process by favoring certain handgun manufacturers over others. Protests by the Italian firm Beretta and other companies prompted TSA on June 12 to open the competition industry-wide and push back various deadlines and delivery dates.
TSA spokesman Robert Johnson adamantly denied in an interview earlier this week that the procurement process contributed to a delay in the summer training classes. The agency has been under pressure from Congress to accelerate the arming of commercial pilots under the Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act enacted last November.
TSA's Federal Flight Deck Officers program allows pilots to volunteer for firearms training and become certified law enforcement officers, authorized to use a handgun to defend their cockpits from hostile intruders.
Potential bidders for the gun contract had been told by TSA that the agency wanted to buy as many as 9,600 handguns through fiscal 2006. The H&K spokesman said the model chosen was the company's USP Compact .40-LEM firearm, which are made in Oberndorf, Germany, and shipped to the U.S. distribution center in Sterling, Va.
COMMENTS
- Dear "GovExec.com reader", What century are you living in? To say "I see no reason to promote the manufacture of guns in Germany now!" is just plain rediculous. It's 2008 now, not 1918. Germany has produced some of the best guns in the world since WW2, and a lot of them, too. We live in a global world, like it or not. Aren't US companies exporting to governments abroad?? U Posted April 3, 2008 6:47 AM
- I agree we should buy American. During the bidding process was there a consideration of the Americans that would be put to work and the taxes that they pay back into the system to support our government, Social Security, and Medicare. How often are these pilots going to use one of these guns? They are just insurance and many of the features some guns have over another are a moot point. Edward Muszkiewicz Posted July 22, 2003 8:48 AM
- What happened to buy American? Congress you should stop this contract in its tracks. There is no reason that justifies arming American airlines with German guns. We have paid a very high price because of German guns and I see no reason to promote the manufacture of guns in Germany now! This is ridiculous and must be stopped. The Dept of Transportation is out of control - that is why they grounded several airports for far too long and destroyed the American airline industry in the last three years. Give this contract to an American firm that employees American workers and outlaw this money from going overseas. GovExec.com reader Posted July 21, 2003 7:46 AM
