What sidearm does the U.S. Military carry

Status
Not open for further replies.
Saw a picture of a friend who's in Army Special Forces with a Beretta sticking out of his vest. I assume it was a M9. The Army didn't issue Beretta's in .40 or .45 did they?
 
All Berettas in US military service are M9 Berettas in 9mm. The only .40s are in use by USCG and the only .45s are 1911s in service with certain units in the USMC and SOCOM, and the HK Mark 23, also in use by some units in SOCOM on an as needed basis. There's been discussion of the SEALs adopting the HK Compact Tactical .45, but I'm not sure what the status of that is.
 
Thanks Buzz, that's what I thought.

Also, the new American Rifleman Sept. 06 page 18 says the military is ordering up to 70,000 more M9's and 14 MILLION more magazines. So they think it'll be around a bit longer:)

My friend in SF, didn't seem to think badly of the M9's.
 
Pevey, I work with a lot of DHS guys. There are a whole lot more Sigs in use than HKs, by far.
 
Infantry, and everyone else (including special operations personnel), are restricted from carrying privately owned sidearms. People sometimes get away with that, but the consequences of getting caught can be severe, if the powers that be want to push the issue.
Click to expand...

Okay, that's where I got confused at, between the POS and issued sidearms.

Are the reasons why POS's not allowed because of liability or something along those lines?
 
Hey guys we better be careful talking about what sidearms American soliders carry into battle that is against opsec!:neener:
 
Mountainbear, my apologies if I offended you or your gun shop owner.

Grant, you gotta understand there's been an endless amount of unsubstantiated rumor lately regarding pistols and the U.S. Military. Not only do they come up, but week after week they seem to repeat themselves. A signifcant portion of these rumors are nothing but conjecture, and I believe the burden of proof to be on the claimant rather than the reading audience. It seems in this case, the rumor was true. The proverbial blind squirrel still finds a nut now and again.

Thanks for shedding some real light on the topic, and you're right, I was a jackass (I'm too poor at this time to afford the dollar signs at the end).
 
Well actually dhs coast guard not only carries the sig p226 but they also carry the beretta and the hk uspc in a .40. The army is now carrying a beretta m9 soon to be changed. The marine corps is still with the beretta but my buddy who is recon said they gave him a kimber desert warrior last tour. The navy pilots are now carrying hk pdw (personal defense weapon). The ffdo however carry the hk uspc lem (law enforcement modification trigger) in a .40. Border patrol still with glocks but slowly murging with the hk as well. Thank god no one is using the xd's. I would hate to have my life on the line with some one carrying one of those gun's. Better off with a high point.
 
Border Patrol never had glocks, they had the Beretta 96D.

USMC Recon was carrying modified 1911s called the MEUSOC and Berettas as of 03 but could be changing who knows.
 
USMC Recon was carrying modified 1911s called the MEUSOC and Berettas as of 03 but could be changing who knows.
Click to expand...

The 85 guys in the Det One USMC Force Recon/SOCOM intergration test bed unit were issued Kimbers built to what would be packaged as the Warrior (not the Desert Warrior) for the civilian market. I suspect this was done because a COTS solution to the pistol issue was quicker than having more MEUSOC pistols built.

The army is now carrying a beretta m9 soon to be changed.
Click to expand...

Nope. Big Army dropped out of the new pistol program. The contract only applies to USASOC now.

The navy pilots are now carrying hk pdw (personal defense weapon).
Click to expand...

Hadn't heard that. Actually heard the USMC trialled the P90 and MP7 for their pilots (not USN) and rejected them. Or are you referring to the MP5 PDW format?

Thank god no one is using the xd's.
Click to expand...

I'd never say never. Particularly because there has been at least one military purchase of XDs for use by US personnel. Kind of like some USP45CTs have been purchased, and supposedly Glock 19s and Walther P-99s as well. Basis of issue for pistols is way up these days, and in the absence of enough Berettas to go around, various other solutions have been found, either because units could not wait for Berettas, or did not want them if they were available (and had the clout to get away with that).
 
It says the Marines ordered 10,000 of them.
Click to expand...
Talk about the story that never dies.
You didn't read very closely. Read the links at the bottom. It also says "subsequently retracted on May 6, 2004." That's an old story which was bogus when first printed. Somebody was pulling the author's leg and he didn't realize he was being jerked around. After he printed the article he had to eat crow and retract it.
Even with the retraction clearly at the top of the article and links to the retraction at the bottom somebody is constantly bringing this article up as "proof". Read closer.
 
He'd be in a minority. The M9 is pretty healthily despised within USASOC due to persistent and recurring locking block failures.


------For my MOS USMC-1812.the M9 was the issued weapon.
We qualified twice a year with it, and once a year with the M16A2.
I was discharged in 95. Pretty much everyone despised the M9, for its laundry list of broken parts, problems and the 9mm round.--------
 
I still don't know what all the crying is over the M9, I put on average about 18k rounds though them a year, I've only had one die on me, proper operator maintence and knowledge of what the internals should look like is key. Also haveing an Armorrer that is aware that these guns get used and need to be LTI/PFI'd on a routine basis is a good step to keep all the weapons up and running.

The MEUSOC .45's get almost 100k rounds ran through them, before, durring and through out build ups, you don't think they go down. There are few weapons that will handle what "we" put them through.

The Kimber's purchased by DET-1 are currently with 4th Platoon, 1st Force or what used to be 1st Force.

The Iraqi's had G17's and there are several of them in the hands of deployed US personel, they just get passed around from rotation to rotation.

I'm not up on what the Army carries, but I've never seen a Ruger or Glock issued.
 
Beretta M9 9mm, Sig P228 9mm, H&K SOCOM suppressed .45 for Navy SEALS, Updated M1911-A1 .45 for Marines, Sig P229R DAK .40 S&W for U.S. Coast Guard, and Glock 17 9mm In Desert Storm anyway.
 
Yeah, well I was a super secret green hat airborn water mammal and I carried a Noisy Cricket. :eek:

Actually, I keep wondering what would have been the result if the .mil had put the money into the 1911 platform they are currently spending on parts for the M-9. I know it didn't happen because of the rush to conform to a NATO approved (european developed) round, but I still do wonder.

The M-9 wasn't a horrible pistol, but it was always in the back of my mind that it could lock up on me at any given moment. I had one do that because of a locking block failure on the qual range. Never pointed well for me, either. And what's up with barrels being a consumeable item?

Oh well. I guess I'm too much of a .45 fan to let it go. I'm going to pet, I mean clean, my 1911's now.
 
As far as the millitary using hardball, FMJ, 9mm rounds. Has anyone shot any millitary ammo? I'd say it's loaded hot. It'll do way more damage to a coon than jacketed hollow points. I think a standard jacketed hollow point doesn't really kill a coon faster than a .22. I'm talking about shooting the coon point blank in a trap. It's how I test handgun calibers. I've got an idea of what works best. I shot a couple of coons with millitary 9mm ammo. The stuff that the millitary suposedly rejects because it's 30fps off spec. It's a real step up from civilian 9mm ammo. Coons--DEAD. Personally, I wouldn't jump up and down that I had a Beretta 92 with the millitary's ammo instead of a .45. Anyone who says the Beretta is a wimpy gun is a fool.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

SC Shooter
  • Locked
Military Selection Status
Replies
11
Views
1K
Zerodefect
Z
P
  • Locked
Military sidearms
2
Replies
29
Views
16K
gengarnett
G
I
  • Locked
Independent Pistol Trials
Replies
15
Views
923
Owen
O
cluttonfred
  • Locked
Why does the U.S. military require manual safeties on pistols?
2
Replies
46
Views
6K
JHansenAK47
J
cluttonfred
  • Locked
What sidearm should replace the U.S. M9?
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Replies
201
Views
14K
ugaarguy
ugaarguy
Back
Top