As most of us are heavily invested in the practical pistol sports, we forget sometimes that for the vast majority of the Army, pistols are seldom fired and are typically used by officers and senior NCOs as chowhall weapons. Yes, they are issued to machine gunners, medics, and snipers as backups, but they are not generally used in this capacity. Basically, if you have an M4, you really don't have much use for a handgun at all. MPs aside, the change ain't a big deal at all.
As a rule, the GPUs don't practice transitions to handguns as a result of a malfunction with a rifle. You basically are taught to find cover, perform immediate or remedial action and get back in the fight.
The process of picking the P320 is what made people mad, but congress specifies how solicitations and awards are made for contracts within certain monetary thresholds, and due to the expense, and importance of the contract, the Acquisitions process can get really drawn out. If you were to skip any part of the process as stated in the Federal Acquisition Regulation you open yourself up for protests and potentially to starting the entire process over again. People can point fingers at the Army, but they're just following the rules at this point. There are efforts to create a Rapid Capabilities Office to fastrack projects but it's still in the early phases and is more focused on cyber where time is critical (Moore's Law).
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