As Sig Sauer GmbH in Germany and Sig Sauer, Inc in the United States cleaved themselves from the remnants of the Swiss Schweizer Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG) in the 1990s, both firms needed a new pistol to compete with Glock. Glock’s polymer frame offerings were beginning to dominate the pistol market, and their frames and striker-fired design made them cheaper to produce than the alloy-framed, hammer-fired P22x series.To counter the Glock, the American and German branches of Sig Sauer would collaborate on a new series of pistols, the Sig Pro. The Sig Pro was to be more affordable, more ergonomic, and cheaper to produce than the P22x series. It would accomplish that through the use of a polymer frame and replaceable polymer grip panels.However, the P22x series would continue to grab sales alongside the Sig Pro, though the Sig Pro would see large adoption by some national police agencies, most notably the Police Nationale of France. The Police Nationale issue a version of the Sig Pro, the SP2022, as their standard issue sidearm.The SP2022 is one of the most common pistols in France, as the order of over 270,000 units was the largest French purchase of a handgun following WWII, dwarfing the French military’s order of the PAMAS (a French version of the Beretta 92). Moreover, in police service, the SP2022 replaced the MR 73 revolver, a powerful, yet limited .357 magnum revolver.