Army purchases more M9 pistols

As gun makers prepare to compete for the contract to make a more powerful and accurate weapon for the U.S. Army, the military continues to purchase more M9 pistols.

According to Fox News, Beretta Defense Technologies announced today that the Army will spend approximately $250,000 for additional M9 pistols from Beretta U.S.A. Corporation.

The Army has been working for over five years with the industry to replace hundreds of thousands archaic M9 and M11 handguns with a Modular Handgun System (MHS). The system is designed to provide greater accuracy, reliability and durability. It will also move the Army closer to its goal of “one shot, one kill”.

Although Beretta has delivered more than 600,000 M9 pistols, Army officials still maintain that the model suffers from reliability issues. Fox News reported that Beretta continues to praise the reliability of its flagship pistol. According to their statistics, the average reliability of all M9 pistols tested at Beretta U.S.A. is 17,500 rounds without a stoppage. The average durability of M9 slides is over 35,000 rounds.

The Army held an industry day this week in order to issue its design requirements for the new standard issue handgun. Gun manufacturers gave authorities their full attention and will begin preparing their competitive bids for the lucrative Army contract for the military issued weapon. Whomever is awarded the deal will most likely benefit from producing a similar design for the consumer market as well.

When the Pentagon adopted the M9 in 1985, Beretta relocated to Maryland in order to handle the manufacturing output requirements. Since then, it has delivered over 600,000 M9 pistols.

According to Fox News, an additional 18,000 are already scheduled for delivery under Beretta’s 5-year contract awarded in September 2012. The contract is for an additional 100,000 handguns.

While the Army is cutting officers to make Pentagon demanded reductions, the success of MHS will result in the purchase of more than 400,000 new pistols for the U.S. military forces