Spanish National Police Adopt Springfield Armory Echelon 4.0FC

Springfield Armoury has announced a major European law enforcement contract win with Spain’s primary police force, the Policía Nacional, selecting the Echelon 4.0FC as their new standard-issue sidearm for uniformed officers. The Policía Nacional consists of over 70,000 officers, primarily tasked with policing Spain’s urban areas; they are currently equipped with the HK USP Compact.

Spanish media first reported that Springfield Armory won the contract back in December 2025. Spanish reports detail that 6,500 pistols will be delivered through a contract worth 2.4 million Euros ($2.67 million). The Echelon 4.0FC reportedly beat the Glock G45 and HK SFP9 to be selected as the new pistol, with a lower unit price per pistol giving Springfield Armory the edge.

While Springfield Armory’s announcement doesn’t confirm it specifically, it appears that the pistol selected by the Spanish police will be the variant of the Echelon 4.0FC with a frame-mounted manual safety. This would make sense, as the pistols they will replace, the HK USP Compact, have a manual safety, and the pistol model shown in Springfield Armory’s press release is the manual safety variant.

Here’s Springfield Armory’s announcement in full:

“Springfield Armory® is proud to announce the Spanish National Police (Policía Nacional) has officially adopted the Echelon™ 4.0FC 9mm pistol as the issued pistol for its uniformed officers. The Policía Nacional is the national civilian police force of Spain, and its responsibilities include policing of urban areas and large cities, counter-terrorism operations, immigration enforcement, and more.

Developed in partnership between Springfield Armory and HS Produkt, the fully ambidextrous, duty-grade Echelon set a new standard for modern, striker-fired duty pistols at its launch in 2023. Since that time, the Echelon has been adopted by numerous agencies and departments across the United States. It has also received the highest “gold” ranking in the “Member Tested and Recommended” (MTR) program of the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA).

At the heart of the Echelon lies the patent-pending Central Operating Group, an entirely self-contained and serialized stainless steel chassis. The result is a system that is easily moved between available grip modules in seconds. This combines with the pistol’s Variable Interface System for direct-mounting an expansive range of today’s top optics to offer a pistol with both advanced ergonomics and a highly modular design.

The Echelon 4.0FC variant adopted by the Spanish National Police merges full-size, 17+1/20+1 capacity with a compact 4”-barreled slide assembly, delivering duty-grade capacity with fast handling in a balanced, do-it-all platform. The result is a pistol ideal for the demanding needs of this force.

Pitted against offerings from numerous international firearms manufacturers, the Echelon 4.0FC — represented by Lejarazu Sport SLU during the process — faced a very challenging set of testing protocols. These included intensive shooting and accuracy tests, barrel obstruction testing, durability tests in a range of environments from -4°F to 122°F, drop testing, interchangeability of parts verification, and more. The Echelon 4.0FC met or exceeded all the requirements to become the pistol selected by the evaluation team.

In addition to the exceptional performance of the pistol during the testing, the modularity of the Echelon’s design also stood out during the Spanish National Police’s testing. They noted that the pistol’s ability to be quickly converted to different configurations — such as compact variants, etc. — further ensured that the Echelon would be their choice.

“Springfield Armory and HS Produkt are extremely honored that the Echelon 4.0FC has been selected by the Spanish National Police to be the issued pistol for its uniformed officers,” said Dennis Reese, owner and CEO of Springfield Armory. “The Echelon family of pistols was designed from the ground up to provide a duty-grade 9mm pistol ready for a wide range of applications. This adoption by the Spanish National Police further reinforces this fact.”

“HS Produkt, in conjunction with Springfield Armory, spent years and countless hours meticulously developing and testing the Echelon platform pistol to be the ultimate duty pistol platform in existence,” said Zeljko Pavlin, CEO of HS Produkt. “Having the Spanish National Police select the Echelon pistol over the competition through the rounds of vigorous testing validates all that has been invested in the design and establishes the Echelon as the premier choice in duty pistols for government and law enforcement use.””