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HK45 official adoption by SOCOM/SEALs?

13K views 18 replies 14 participants last post by  LSP 972 
#1 ·
Hi all. To what extent is the HK45CT/HK45T on issue to Navy SEAL/SOCOM personnel? Of course I've read that it has an official designation of Mark 24 Mod O, but is there any official source for that? Some information says it's the replacement for the Mark 23. The reason I ask is I would like to shoot it in a match that is for military service pistols, and need it approved as such - this would enable me to acquire it in the first place. There's a degree of leniency with approvals as the USP 9mm has been approved as a "close copy" of the mark 23. So I would assume the HK45T should be ok if the SEALs are using a variant. Therefore I would appreciate if anyone could point me towards any official sources for the HK45's adoption. Thanks.
 
#7 ·
This article starts out flawed on who was responsible for the concept of the HK45 and HK45C. While Larry Vickers was working at HK at that time, Ken H. was not, never did. These two have rewritten the history of the concept and development of the pistol and have conveniently left out of their articles and tales of its creation the many other folks at HK in the US and Germany that played a part (much larger part in fact) in its concept, development, fabrication, testing, QA, marketing, importation, logistical support, documentation, etc. That is simply wrong to take all the credit without mentioning others. The concept that became the HK45 started with the USP45CT that was in development before Larry even worked at HK.
G3Kurz
 
#5 ·
Officially the MK23 MOD 0 in the US was approved for "service" pistol competition use. Not sure about the HK45C as it is only used by one team in the SPECWAR community BUT it is used so that may help you get it by your approval process. Good luck.
G3Kurz
 
#11 ·
I've been out of the USSOCOM community for a couple of years now, but my team acquired 45CTs in the last year I was there. In the NSW community, my understanding was the pistols were "available," but a basis of issue was still nebulous - at least as of 2012, the P226 was still the primary sidearm for SEALs across the board. Again, my information is dated, but, as of late 2012, NSW was the only USSOCOM component with any significant number of 45CTs in the inventory.

WRT why the compact versus the full size - as stated above, as a supressor host, the 45CT is already plenty big. With "elephant foot" magazines, capacity is identical to the full size; and there's no "fuller size" magazine for the HK45 that would give it a capacity advantage. WRT shootability, I will say that our 45CTs were, despite HORRIBLE triggers (especially in DA), the most accurate handguns I'd EVER shot, better even than some high-end custom 1911s I've used over the years. I simply don't see any reason to go to the full size, ESPECIALLY for a special operator whose primary weapon will, 99.9% of the time, be a rifle/carbine.

Again, sorry that my data is dated, but those were my observations from 18 months ago or so...
 
#13 ·
They are issued to "Vanilla" Teams now. For every squad that's come through in the past two years, at least 2 of the 8 guys would have them with the cans.

Definitely not as quiet as the MK23, but a whole lot smaller and lighter. Doing a NOW drill with the MK24 sucks though compared to doing it with a P226.
 
#14 ·
Spec Ops adopts a lot of things. That doesn't mean they'll use it. It's whatever fits the mission. While stationed on Coronado in the early 90's the SEAL armory was filled with lots of interesting weapons. Street sweepers, Browning automatic rifles with the barrels shortened and stock cut down. They have a blank check, they had S&W build the M76 for use in Viet Nam. So yes they probably have Mk23 and lots of other weapons but why when you can carry an M-4 with 8 inch barrel.
 
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