Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: terryr@ogicse.ogc.edu (Terry Rooker)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: The replacement for the 1911A1 in the US Army
Message-ID: <12812@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 5 Jan 90 04:08:30 GMT
References: <12753@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: Oregon Graduate Institute (formerly OGC), Beaverton, OR
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Approved: military@att.att.com



From: terryr@ogicse.ogc.edu (Terry Rooker)
In article <12753@cbnews.ATT.COM> munnari!batserver.cs.uq.oz.au!anthony@uunet.UU.NET (Anthony Lee) writes:
>
>
>From: munnari!batserver.cs.uq.oz.au!anthony@uunet.UU.NET (Anthony Lee)
>
>Is it true that the 1911A1 .45 has been replaced by the Italian Beratta
>92F ?  The Beratta having a 15 rounds magazine would surely make the 
>grip larger and therefore harder to handle then the 1911A1.  What's the
>advantages of Beratta to the 1911A1 ?
>
It is very true.  Reasons for the replacement?  Most importantly was
NATO unity/commonality.  Almost every other major military force used
a 9mm round.  Second, although the M1911A is a great weapon it is a 70
year old design.  There has been many new developments in that time.
A third reason probably was the 15 round magazine.  If you are going
to need a pistol, you probably will want LOTS of bullets to make up
for the lack of range, etc.  Even with a 15 round staggered magazine,
the grip is not uncomfortable.  I have a pre-military version of the
Beratta 92 and it even fits my wife's small hands.  The single
advantage I can see over the M1911A is the disassembly.  The M1911A
required some coordinated manuvers to get it together, the Beratta is
rather simple.  I won't get into the dispute over 9mm vs .45.  I
imagine that there was some political factors in the decision as well.
The American manufactors continually cried foul during both rounds of
testing.  Yes they had to do it over because the first round wasn't
fair, and if I remember right no weapon on earth could have met the
requirements (I guess the army wanted the M1911A also :-).  Compare
that with testing for the M1911A.  Two army officers walked into a
slaughter house with the pistols and emerged with the chosen 
weapon :-).

-- 
Terry Rooker
terryr@cse.ogi.edu