Military guns shouldn't have external hammers, too much sand and crap can get in
Yeah dude, like, sand will never ever get into a striker's channel!
PS: As a 1911 fan even I am tired of the Beretta bashing. What you should be railing against is a procurement system that lets a few million dollars worth of small arms get used up and still be on the line for lack of replacement. I used 1911s in the military and they were almost invariably indifferently maintained and all over the map in terms of accuracy and reliability. Did we ever get new ones? Nope. Did we ever get OEM magazines? Nope again.
The Beretta suffers from the same dualistic reality the 1911 still bears a cross for. Both the 1911 and the Beretta have excellent reputations in civilian and police use, the Beretta in particular including many years in harsh conditions with the Border Patrol. The 1911 was either praised or reviled in widespread military service as one can find quotes going both ways. In use with MEU/SOC one never hears a complaint in the military press. Strange huh? Could it be that these 1911s are well maintained?
Yet the average military samples of both pistols are and were routinely criticized as P'sOS of the highest stink. I love 1911s, but I absolutely hated everything about the US Navy's pistols except for their well broken in GI style triggers, which were usually sweet.
The long and the short of it remains that any pistol adopted for use by the US military is going to be at least somewhat tainted by the association. If the SIG had won the larger contract I have little doubt we'd be hearing of aftermarket mag failures being attributed to the pistol rather than the mag manufacturer and also about the fragility of the design in general, because if it can be broken, a GI will break it.
People like the SeALs love their SIGs, but they actually care for their weapons unlike most other units in the DoD for which the proper level of care required of small arms is usually just another makework chore.
