Springfield Armory Echelon

The Springfield Armory Echelon 9mm is a completely new duty-grade pistol built from the ground up with serious users in mind. Utilizing years of knowledge and product development of its other popular pistols, Springfield Armory was able to determine not only what would make for a great striker-fired design, but also harness the advantages of cutting-edge manufacturing capabilities to deliver the best-executed 9mm pistol design in years.

The Springfield Armory Echelon 9mm

At the heart of the Echelon’s innovative approach is its Central Operating Group. The Central Operating Group is the self-contained serialized part of the pistol that hosts the trigger system and ambidextrous slide lock lever. With this design, the Central Operating Group can easily be moved between grip modules in seconds (more on that grip module in a moment). Precision built from stainless steel, the chassis provides a robust housing for the operating system of the Echelon.

The advantages of this system are numerous, not the least of which is the modularity as well as the strength of housing these critical parts inside a rigid steel chassis rather than a polymer frame only. The result is a reliable and repeatable trigger. The critical components of the Central Operating Group are machined from tool steel and highly polished, giving you a smooth and clean take up and crisp break.

Hands-On

The Echelon provides the user with four distinct engagement surfaces on the purpose-built billet-machined and Melonite-finished slide. The front of the slide features a forward “trench” with aggressive serrations as well as a “shelf” located just forward of the ejection port. These are all designed to aid in charging or press-checking the pistol from the front. The rear of the slide, also featuring aggressive serrations, is flared outward at the rear with “wings”. This offers the user multiple means of charging the slide in all conditions.

In addition, the Echelon is fully ambidextrous. This includes not only the slide lock levers integrated into the Central Operating Group, but also the magazine releases. And the mag release is not reversible, it is fully ambi with buttons on both sides. For more information visit Springfield-Armory.com.