The Military.com link you posted beats around the bush a lot. Maybe because even the Army hasn’t decided on universal hollow-points.
“The Army’s Modular Handgun System will include special ammunition such as jacketed hollow-points...” And then they go on to imply that it will be a command decision as to which ammo is used, which sounds a lot like the current situation. The only difference will be the standard issue SIG will be able to use HP’s, while the current standard issue M9 will not. Currently, only special forces issued with other pistols (M11, etc.) can use HPs.
And, on to the esoteric stuff. I am a generalist when it comes to firearms, and I own calibers in .22 to .44 Mag, so I have no axe to grind. I will say that a recent test I did opened my eyes to 9mm capabilities.
I was searching for a carry round for my new Charter Arms Boomer in .44 Spl. with a short 2” ported barrel. I fired into 4 ply denim and non-calibrated gel. The only round to expand was Hornady .44 Spl 165g FTX. It went 13” deep and expanded to .62”.
However, as a comparison, I fired a 4” barreled 9mm (the shortest I had) with Federal 9mm 124g HST. It went 15” and expanded to .60”!
1. To be fair the test should have been against a 3” barreled 9mm handgun (which I don’t have) for carry gun equivalence.
2. Even fairer would have been FTX in both calibers. If federal ever comes out with a .44 Spl HST, it will probably blow the 9mm out of the water, as evidenced by their excellent .45 ACP HST.
3. This is a corollary to 2. Everyone that says 9mm benefits from recent advances in ammo ignores the fact that all calibers benefit. And .45 still beats 9mm, FMJ to FMJ, and HST to HST.
Still, you can’t ignore the 9mm benefits of small dimensions/high capacity with reasonable recoil in a round that is now much more, and more reliably, effective against people.
There are other articles about this out there. I chose the Military.com one because they apparently forgot about their own article when questioning why the Army decided on a 9mm. It also makes army sense to me that the article says the army will not use HP rounds with the current M9 pistol because it was not tested with hollow points. Adding the expense of testing the new pistol with HP rounds makes me believe they are serious about using them.