Beretta 9 mm Finds Niche In 'Low-Intensity' Missions.

One weapon that U.S. armed forces use in virtually every peacekeeping operation, low-intensity conflict, embassy rescue and humanitarian expedition that they conduct these days is one with a long and colorful connection with the nation's military history--the pistol.

But the pistol that most U.S. forces are using today is not made by a domestic manufacturer, such as the legendary Colt's Manufacturing Company or Smith & Wesson, bun by the Italian firm Fabbrica d'Armi P. Beretna S.p.A., or more simply, Beretta.

The weapon in question is the M9 9 mm semiautomatic pistol, which in 1985 replaced the venerable Colt .45 caliber semiautomatic--the M1911A1--as the standard sidearm for the Army, Navy; Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. It was the first new military handgun since Colt, of Hartford, Conn., introduced the .45 in 1911.

The M9 is a double-action, recoil-operated semiautomatic pistol with a dual-stack magazine. Semiautomatic means that it can be fired repeatedly, without reloading each time or manually cocking a hammer, simply by pulling the trigger.

Since its adoption by the military services, the M9 has been carried by U.S. troops in more than 70 operations, including Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti, the Persian Gulf and Panama, according to Jeffrey K. Reh, vice-general manager for Beretta's U.S. division, Beretta U.S.A. Corp., of Accokeek, Md.

Since 1985, Beretna has delivered 316,000 of the M9s to the five services. Military organizations issue pistols for personal protection to officers, senior non-commissioned officers, military police personnel, pilots, and crews of aircraft, combat vehicles and automatic weapons systems.

"Almost anybody in uniform who needs a personal weapon--but whose job won't let him carry a rifle--gets an M9," Reh explained in an interview at Beretta's Accokeek plant.

With a weight, when empty, of 2.09 pounds and a length of 8.54 inches--slightly smaller and lighter than the Colt--the M9 is proving useful in tight spaces, where a long gun would be awkward, Reh said.

For this reason, pistols are being integrated increasingly into urban combat training, according to Gus Funcasta, senior engineer in the Army's small arms program at the Picatinny Arsenal, in New Jersey, which manages the M9 program for all five services.

"In some situations, M-16s and carbines are just too big a weapon," he said in a telephone interview.

At the Ready

Because of its small size, the M9 is standard equipment in every U.S. pilot's survival vest. When Air Force Capt. Scott O'Grady's F-16 fighter was shot down in Bosnia in 1995, leaving him stranded in enemy territory for six days, he kept his pistol ready for immediate use throughout the experience, according to an Air Force spokesman. O'Grady clutched his M9 even as he ran to climb aboard the Marine helicopter that rescued him.

The M9's magazine holds 15 rounds, more than twice as many as the Colt's, doubling the number of shots that can fired before reloading.

This can be critical in a heavy firefight, as illustrated in Mark Bowden's book, "Black Hawk Down," which is about the 1993 ambush of U.S. soldiers in Mogadishu, Somalia.

When Army Ranger Private First Class Brian Heard's M-60 machine gun was disabled by enemy fire, he pulled out his M9 and fired repeatedly at the dozens of oncoming Somalis. The pistol kept the enemy at bay until Heard could pick up a nearby M-16 rifle, with greater range and firepower.

The M9's 9 mm bullet is slightly smaller than the .45 caliber, Reh said, but it has a much greater muzzle velocity--1,200 feet per second for the 9 mm, compared to 830 feet per second for the .45.

"This makes the M9 much more accurate," Reh said. The 9 mm's maximum effective range is 152 feet, while the .45's is 82 feet, he said.

In tests conducted by the Army, a 9mm with a full magazine fired from a distance of 25 meters produced an average target 4 grouping of 2.7 inches, compared to 4.5 inches for a .45.

The .45 caliber pistol--with its heavier bullet--was designed to stop enemy soldiers charging at close range, Reb said, "but the 9 mm is much more likely to hit them in the first place and to penetrate."

The 9 mm is much more reliable than the .45, said Funcasta. Randomly selected M9s fired an average of 4,000 rounds between stoppages, he said, while the .45s fired an average of 162 rounds between them.

In the Field

"We never hear any complaints about the M9 jamming," Funcasta claimed. They function well in the field, be said.

"During Desert Storm, we had some complaints about them clogging with sand," he said. "It's like talcum powder in that part of the world. But if the pistols were cleaned more often, it wasn't a problem."

The Navy had a problem with corrosion of its pistols aboard ships, he noted, but Beretta changed the finish to a combination of phosphate and baked-on, dry lubricant, and that "seems to have solved the problem."

For the present, Funcasta said, the services seem to be satisfied with the M9. "We ask people what improvements they want, and they just shrug their shoulders," he said. "They can't think of anything."

Beretta got the contract to make the pistols after a 1978 House Appropriations Committee survey found a proliferation of as many as 30 different types and sizes of handguns among the services, including the .45 semiautomatic and .38 caliber revolvers, Reh explained.

The last large number of .45s were bought before 1950 and were nearing the end of their service lives, he noted. There were maintenance- and safety-related problems, he added. In addition, Reh said, the Pentagon wanted a standard sidearm for all of its services that used the same 9 mm ammunition as its NATO allies.

The Air Force tested designs from Beretta, Colt, Smith & Wesson, Fabrique Nationale, Star and Heckler & Koch. In 1980, it declared Beretta the winner, but the Army challenged the results. So the Defense Department ordered the Army to start all over again. In 1982, the Army announced that all of the submitted pistols had failed its tests. But Congress urged it to try again.

More Tests

In 1984, the Army tested models from Beretta, Smith & Wesson, Sig-Sauer, Heckler & Koch, Walther, Steyr and Fabrique Nationale. The source selection was delayed by legal action on behalf of both Smith & Wesson and Heckler & Koch, but in 1985, Beretta got the five-year, $75 million contract.

It was a big setback for Colt, which had been making pistols for the U.S. government since the Mexican-American War. It was Sam Colt who, in 1836, invented the first pistol with a revolving cylinder containing five or six bullets, giving rise to the term "six-shooter." The Colt revolver greatly increased the individual shooter's firepower. Before Colt, only one- or two-barrel flintlock pistols were available.

The U.S. Cavalry and Texas Rangers credited Colt firearms for their great success in fighting Indians.

In 1873, Colt introduced the Single-Action Army Model 1873--" the gun that won the West." It was the first breech-loaded revolver to use self-contained metallic cartridges. At the turn of the century, Colt worked with pioneering firearm designer John Browning to develop the gas-operated, air-cooled machine gun, the Browning automatic rifle (BAR) and the Colt .45 semiautomatic pistol.

Over three quarters of a century, Colt delivered about 2.5 million .45s to the U.S. government. The .45s saw action in two world wars, Korea, Vietnam and innumerable expeditions around the globe.

Most of them now have been retired, Funcasta said, although some have been modified for special operations forces and are still in use.

"There are still some old-timers who love the .45s," said Funcasta, "but the younger guys all love the M9s."

Colt's misfortune continued for several more years. In the late 1980s, it lost the contract to produce the Ml 6 rifle to the Belgian-owned Fabrique Nationale. In 1999, Colt discontinued seven lines of handguns in order to streamline its operations, according to the company's president, retired Marine Lt. Gen. William Keys.

Now, the company, however, is on a sound footing, Keys insisted. Colt has introduced a new hunting rifle, and it continues to produce handguns, including the classic Single Action Army revolver. It also continues to supply the U.S. military with the M4 carbine, Keys said, making it the last domestically owned manufacturer to provide small arms to the Defense Department.

The firm that landed the M9 contract, Beretta, has been making firearms since 1526. It claims to be the world's oldest industrial enterprise.

From the Italian Alps

Initially, the M9 was made at the firm's facilities in the city of Breschia--in the foothills of the Italian Alps near Milan--and in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but the contract required that manufacturing be moved to the United States. For this reason, Beretta expanded its factory in the village of Accokeek, Md., south of Washington, D.C.

"We doubled the size of the factory," Reh said. "It's now more than 120,000 square feet." The workforce also mushroomed, from 120 to about 425 currently, Reh said.

As its peak, during Desert Storm, the factory was working three shifts a day, shipping 10,000 pistols a month to the Army, Reh said.

The pace has slowed since then, Reh admitted. In the past two years, Beretta received two follow-on contracts, one for $ 18.5 million to supply the Navy with 45,000 M9s and another for $6.5 million to provide 16,500 pistols for the Army Reserve and National Guard.

Before the pistols are shipped to the customer, each one is test fired at the factory, Reh explained. "Every single gun gets a whole magazine of ammunition fired through it," he said.

In fact, Reh said, the M9 is "the most tested personal defense weapon in history. Beretta has fired more than 8 million rounds in tests of the pistol, he said, and the Army has fired another one million test rounds at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md., and other sites.

Beretta employs six to eight full-time shooters to do the test firing at its Accokeek plant, Reh said. "They come here because they love shooting, He said. "But after doing it day in and day out, they get tired of it. It becomes too much of a good thing."