The St. Louis County (MO) police department, which has more than 900 uniformed officers, has officially adopted Springfield Armory’s Echelon 4.5F 9 mm-chambered pistol. The Echelon 4.5F is a striker-fired duty pistol with a host of revolutionary, patent-pending features. The modular and highly adaptable handgun is engineered with superior ergonomics and built to withstand the harshest conditions.
“Springfield Armory has a strong commitment to supporting the law enforcement community,” said Fred Mincks, Springfield Armory’s law enforcement sales manager. “We are proud to have been able to provide such a capable firearm to the St. Louis County police department to help them keep their community safe.”
Driving the modularity of the design is the Echelon’s patent-pending Central Operating Group. Employing cutting-edge manufacturing techniques, it’s an entirely self-contained and serialized stainless steel chassis. The result is a system that is easily moved between available grip modules in seconds.
The pistol also features interchangeable grip modules, allowing it to fit a wide range of officers’ hand sizes. It comes standard with the medium grip and three interchangeable backstraps, while small and large grip modules can be purchased separately. The three backstraps are designed to fit all three grip sizes.
Further adding to the fully ambidextrous Echelon is its innovative Variable Interface System. This system employs patent-pending self-locking pins that exert lateral pressure on the optic’s interior mounting surface for consistent and reliable point of aim/point of impact. The pins can be positioned to fit the footprints of more than 30 popular optics, allowing for an unparalleled direct-mount fit.
“For any department looking for a new weapon system, we can highly recommend the Springfield Armory Echelon series of pistols as a durable, highly configurable platform that can fulfill multiple roles,” said O. Jason Dite, department armorer for the St. Louis County Police. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with Springfield Armory and the innovative Echelon models.”