Last July Amn Brayden Lovan was tragically killed in a shooting which occurred in the Weapons Storage Area of FE Warren AFB, Wyoming. It is alleged he was shot by another member of his squadron, Amn Marcus White-Allen who was charged with involuntary manslaughter as well as making a false official statement. That Airman was later found dead in his dorm room when his command failed to hold him in pre-trial confinement.
But that’s not the story most people heard for many months after the shooting. The Air Force failed to address the death in a timely fashion which gave opportunity for false accounts of the shooting to infest the internet. Even after lies about the M18 MHS “going off on its own” the Air Force allowed the issue to fester while Air Force Global Strike Command Commanding General Gen Thomas Bussiere removed the weapon from service so that the command’s inventory could be inspected for defects, despite knowing almost immediately that the assailant had lied about his role in the death.
While General Bussiere (who is now retired) remained on leave and failed to address the issue, a paranoid firestorm led to calls to remove MHS from service across the entire Department of War (as well as other agencies at all levels of government) based on unfounded rumors that were circulating the internet. Although the pistols were returned to service with AFGSC by late August, the command did not fully set the record straight as to how AMN Lovat died for over three months.
Eventually, the Air Force directed a complete “Supplemental Inspection” of the service’s entire inventory of MHS. This was “to ensure Airmen/Guardians with an arming requirement, whether at home station or deployed, have a weapon which is safe, reliable, and functional if the moment of need may arise.” The Supplemental Inspection Criteria went above and beyond the requirements of the Technical Order at the time and have since been incorporated into the TO.
Despite consisting of nearly 126,000 pistols, the AF inspection was completed last year and the report was signed on 23 January, 2026 by Brig Gen Brian Filler, Director of Security Forces.
Unfortunately, it has taken over six months for us to obtain a redacted version of the Final Report. At only three pages it is succinct and to the point.
The executive summary tells the story:
“100% of the inspected weapons exhibited no signs of any condition that could have allowed the weapons to experience an “uncommanded discharge.”
Rather than just telling you what is in it, we are sharing the report for you to read every detail yourself. This revelation should put further rumors to bed that the Air Force inventory of sidearms is not safe. To the contrary, MHS is both safe and reliable and this has been attested to time and again. As you can see, no weapon exhibited anything beyond normal wear and tear and those deficiencies have been addressed by maintenance.
Adopted in 2017, there are currently around 500,00 MHS in the US military’s inventory consisting of the M17 and M18 pistols. They are based on the SIG SAUER P320 pistol which is also issued to militaries and law enforcement agencies worldwide. Combined with civilian owned versions of the pistol, they number in the millions.
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