>>64059158>10 millionSIG's bid was $102,705,394 less than Glock's. However, that was factor 7, and would have only mattered if SIG hadn't already beaten Glock in the proceeding factors. The most important was the technical test, where they were even until the ergonomics section, where SIG won narrowly. This was mitigated by Glock winning narrowly on factor 2, but SIG was greatly helped by the compact handgun reliability being dropped. If this had been left in, SIG could very well have failed since the M18 had a lot of teething issues that had to be worked out during the finalization process. The Army's excuse is that the tests they did weren't set up right and so they weren't able to get statistically significant results. This wasn't found out until after the fact, so they said they just dropped the requirement to be fair, rather than leaving in data that they couldn't prove meant anything.
The real differentiator was factor 4, where Glock was barely sufficient, but SIG aced. Part of the contract was replacement of the M998 ball ammo with something better. SIG partnered with Winchester on this and submitted a flat point FMJ and a bog standard hollowpoint. Winchester could not give less of a fuck if they had to give the IP over to other companies for war production. Glock partnered with Federal and their design was a three piece, lead free round that was basically like a 9mm version of M855A1. This was new and flashy shit under patent, so Federal wanted to keep a tighter leash on the round's IP.
After that, SIG edged out Glock on the handgun license rights and the manufacturing plans. So before price was even considered, SIG was already the winning bid. The fact that they absolutely rocked Glock on the final price was just a cherry on top. The final price was also undoubtedly helped by the fact Winchester had taken over operation of the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant and that their ammo designs were going to be a fuckload cheaper to make than Federal's design.