The Glock is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Glock GmbH, located in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria. The company's founder, engineer Gaston Glock, had no experience with firearms design or manufacture at the time their first pistol, the Glock 17, was being prototyped. Glock did however have extensive experience in advanced synthetic polymers, knowledge which was instrumental in the company's design of the first successful line of pistols with a polymer frame.

Despite initial resistance from the market to accept a 'plastic gun' due to concerns about their durability and reliability, Glock pistols have become the company's most profitable line of products, commanding 65% of the market share of handguns for United States law enforcement agencies as well as supplying numerous national armed forces and security agencies worldwide.

Development

In 1980, the Austrian military announced that it would seek tenders for a new, modern duty pistol to replace their World War II-era Walther P38 handguns. The Austrian Ministry of Defence formulated a list of 17 criteria for the new generation service pistol:

1. The design has to be self-loading.
2. The pistol must fire the NATO-standard 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge.
3. The magazines would not require any means of assistance for loading.
4. The magazines must have a minimum capacity of 8 rounds.
5. All actions necessary to prepare the pistol for firing and any actions required after firing must be done single-handed, either right- or left-handed.
6. The pistol must be absolutely secure against accidental discharge from shock, stroke and drops from a height of 2 m onto a steel plate.
7. Disassembly of the main parts for maintenance and reassembling must be possible without the use of any tools.
8. Maintenance and cleaning of the pistol must be accomplished without the use of tools.
9. The pistol's construction may not exceed 58 individual parts (equivalent of a P38).
10. Gauges, measuring and precise testing devices must not be necessary for the long-term maintenance of the pistol.
11. The manufacturer is required to provide the Ministry of Defence with a complete set of engineering drawings and exploded views. These must be supplied with all the relevant details for the production of the pistol.
12. All components must be fully interchangeable between pistols.
13. No more than 20 malfunctions are permitted during the first 10,000 rounds fired, not even minor jams that can be cleared without the use of any tools.
14. After firing 15,000 rounds of standard ammunition, the pistol will be inspected for wear. The pistol will then be used to fire an overpressure test cartridge generating 5,000 bar (72,518 psi) (the normal maximum operating pressure Pmax for the 9 mm NATO is rated at 2,520 bar (36,550 psi)). The critical components must continue to function properly and be up to specifications, otherwise the pistol will be disqualified.
15. When handled properly, under no circumstances may the user be endangered by case ejection.
16. The muzzle energy must be at least 441.5 J when firing a 9mm S-round/P-08 Hirtenberger AG.
17. Pistols scoring less than 70% of the total available points will not be considered for military use.

Glock became aware of the Army's planned procurement and in 1982 assembled a team of Europe's leading handgun experts from military, police and civilian sport shooting circles to define the most desirable characteristics in a combat pistol. Within just three months, Glock developed a working prototype. The new weapon made extensive use of synthetic materials and modern manufacturing technologies in its design, making it a very cost-effective candidate. Several samples of the 9x19mm Glock 17 (so named because it was the 17th patent of the company) were submitted for assessment trials in early 1982, and after passing all of the exhaustive endurance and abuse tests, Glock emerged as the winner with the Model 17.

The handgun was adopted into service with the Austrian military and police forces in 1982 as the P80 (Pistole 80), with an initial order for 25,000 guns. The Glock 17 outperformed 8 different pistols from five other established manufacturers (Heckler & Koch offered their P7M8, P7M13 and P9S, SIG-Sauer of Switzerland bid with their P220 and P226 models, Beretta of Italy submitted their model 92SB-F, FN Herstal proposed an updated variant of the Browning Hi-Power and the home-grown Steyr entered the competition with the GB).

The results of the Austrian trials sparked a wave of interest in Western Europe and overseas, particularly in the United States, where a similar effort to select a service-wide replacement for the M1911 had been ongoing since the late 1970s (known as the Joint Service Small Arms Program). In late 1983, the United States Department of Defense inquired about the Glock pistol and received four samples of the Glock 17 for unofficial evaluation. Glock was then invited to participate in the XM9 Personal Defence Pistol Trials, but declined because the DOD specifications would require extensive retooling of production equipment and providing 35 test samples in an unrealistic time frame.

Shortly thereafter, the Glock 17 was accepted into service with the Norwegian, and Swedish Armed Forces, surpassing all prior NATO durability standards. As a result, the Glock 17 became a standard NATO-classified sidearm and was granted a NATO Stock Number (1005/25/133/6775).

By 1992, some 350,000 pistols had been sold in more than 45 countries, including 250,000 in the United States alone.

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