New pistol in works for Force Recon units

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: January 12, 2004

New pistol in works for Force Recon units
By Christian Lowe and Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writers

Force Reconnaissance Marines may have a new pistol in their holsters by the end of the year, one that will replace the last of the Corps? M1911A1 .45-caliber pistols still in action.
The Corps is asking gun makers for a new .45-caliber pistol to replace the modified M1911A1 pistol now used for close-quarters combat and direct-action missions.

Officials with Marine Corps Systems Command at Quantico, Va., will issue a new request for proposals sometime in the next few months, said Lt. Col. Brent A. Smith, SysCom?s infantry weapons program manager. The Corps plans to purchase up to 1,100 of the new pistols under a $1.9 million contract, and fielding should begin in the fall.

?It?s going to be vastly superior to anything we?ve had,? Smith said.

Currently, Force Recon teams and members of Special Operations Training Groups use the MEU(SOC) .45, a specially modified pistol built from M1911A1 pistols left after the shift to the M9 9mm pistol in 1986.

Force Recon Marines, who often see close-quarters combat, said the M9 didn?t have the one-shot stopping power they needed at close ranges. So they opted for the MEU(SOC) .45, hand-built by Precision Weapons Section armorers at Quantico.

But those pistols break down more frequently, and the time and expense of fixing them led the Corps to search for a replacement, said Maj. Mike Manning, director of infantry weapons programs at Systems Command.

Instead of buying a new pistol, the Corps in 2001 modified the MEU(SOC) .45 with a M1913 rail system, which allows the user to attach flashlights, laser pointers or other accessories.

That rail system couldn?t take the beating of near-constant use, however. A Marine typically fires 15,000 rounds through a MEU(SOC) .45 during a deployment, but the pistols failed much sooner when rail systems were added.

?We put it through a limited evaluation, but the rail cracked after 7,000 rounds on average,? Manning said. ?So we said, ?Where do we go from here???

A growing need

The need for a new pistol grew in 2002 as the number of recon Marines increased and a detachment of Marines was added to the ranks of U.S. Special Operations Command.

Last year, Marine Corps Special Operations Detachment 1 got a new .45 to use in the interim, a modified Kimber 1911 that?s unique to the new unit.

For the Force Recon community, SysCom sought proposals last April from gun makers for a replacement based on the current MEU(SOC) .45 design.

Three gun makers sent test weapons for a shoot-off at Quantico, but all three were found lacking, Manning said. They all ?went to 10,000 rounds before failures,? Manning said, but it wasn?t enough for a proper evaluation by Marine testers. So it was back to the drawing board.

On Nov. 21, the Corps went to gun manufacturers with a broadened proposal that opened the playing field by eliminating the requirement that the replacement .45 be based on the MEU(SOC) design.

Among the requirements is a mandate that the new pistol be easier to fix than the hand-built MEU(SOC) .45, which must be sent to Quantico for repairs.

Easy maintenance

?This is the single biggest key performance parameter for a unit. It has got to have drop-in parts,? Smith said. ?This is a problem we have with the current MEU(SOC) pistol.?

By easing design restrictions, SysCom officials hope to lure more manufacturers to submit their top designs.

?We will encourage the industry folks to send us their best and to be innovative,? Smith said.

A Dec. 17 vendor session at Quantico, for instance, attracted 10 U.S. and foreign gun makers.

?All of them said they can make a .45-caliber pistol that meets or exceeds our requirements,? Smith said.

It?s a small part of the Corps? weapons inventory, Smith said, but the pistol ?is something absolutely critical that the MEU(SOC)s have.?

In the meantime, the MEU(SOC) .45 remains a popular weapon among Marines.

?It is reliable,? said Patrick A. Rogers, a weapons expert and retired chief warrant officer and New York police sergeant. ?While nothing that can be held in two hands can be guaranteed to take out an opponent every time, the .45 has a larger diameter projectile? than the 9mm round.

?Large holes mean more air in, and more air out,? Rogers said, adding ?the ergonomics and consistent trigger pull make the pistol easier and faster to shoot accurately.?

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Sempers,

Roger