History & Development
While eventually adopted by the U.S. military to be the modernized replacement for the M1911A1 in 1985, the Beretta 92 that became the U.S. military’s M9 was a gun with a lot of Beretta’s previous design work behind it.
The company drew on two older Beretta models in particular. The oldest was the blowback single-action M1923 that gave the Beretta 92 its distinct open-slide profile. The post-WWI market for handguns was sparse, so only around 10,000 M1923s actually rolled off Beretta’s assembly lines.
Related: Beretta 92 Buyer’s Guide
The next inspiration came from the M1951. This model had far more success and was Beretta’s first use of a locking action – instead of blowback – in a handgun. The gun featured a falling locking piece and incorporated the M1923’s open slide, which are two distinctive features we now associate with the Beretta 92/M9 pistol.
The M1951’s new locking mechanism had a clear design lineage that came from the Walther P38. When the barrel was forward, this hinged piece raised two lugs and locked it in place. When the barrel moved to the rear during firing, the block dropped into a channel inside the frame. The WWII-era P38s hosted a double-action/single-action trigger with a decocker. The M1951 lacked this feature, but it was eventually added to the Beretta 92.
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The M1951 gained general adoption by the Italian military and saw extensive use in other nations that had their own variants such as Egypt and Iraq. The M1951 was also updated to fire the now standardized 9mm NATO round.
Beretta finished developing the Beretta 92 by 1975, began production in 1976, and added one critical addition. The 92 was further enhanced over its predecessors with a double-stack magazine that significantly increased capacity.
As of this writing, the Beretta 92 series has been nothing short of a smashing market success with no real end in sight. Or, as Beretta puts it on its company history page, “one of the most successful firearms in history, today reaching almost 4,000,000 units produced and supplied to numerous armed and police forces of the world."
U.S. Military Adoption
Few things in the firearms industry can compare to the kind of cutthroat competition that goes into winning a U.S. military contract for a new standard-issue firearm. It is a history filled with some of the world’s greatest firearm brands and some of the most vicious corporate competition. It’s also filled with controversy.
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The adoption of the Beretta 92 as the U.S. military’s M9 pistol was no exception. But the simple truth was the U.S. military didn’t just need to replace one gun – the M1911A1 – but more like a hodgepodge family of aging firearms across the various branches, from even older revolvers to earlier models of the 1911. It was a logistical mess with guns in varying degrees of overuse and abuse.
However, the U.S. military was far from ready to easily part ways with its beloved but aging arsenal of 1911s chambered for .45 ACP. After much hemming and hawing inside the military bureaucracy, the U.S. Department of Defense finally launched the Joint Services Small Arms Program to find a new handgun in 1978, and Beretta was ready.
There was plenty of finger pointing after the trials. However, between a lawsuit and subsequent government investigation, it was shown that the Beretta 92 met the performance requirements and the cost needs of the government.
Eventually dubbed the XM9 program, the agonizing process stretched across three separate trials hosted from 1977 to 1984. The U.S. military laid out 85 requirements for guns entering the competition, though these shifted as the trials dragged out. At a high level, here were the key requirements:
- 9mm NATO chambering
- Double-action/single-action trigger
- Decocking device
- Detachable magazine with at least 13 rounds
- Durability of 5,000 rounds with no more than eight malfunctions
- Ambi thumb safety
Beretta participated in all three trials. By the end of the third, only two guns remained: the Beretta 92 and SIG Sauer P226. The P226 was a stellar performer, and it was even later adopted for a time by the U.S. Navy SEALs. However, it’s performance didn’t substantially set it apart from the Beretta 92 in the eyes of the trial, but its cost did. The U.S. military officially adopted the Beretta 92 as the “Pistol, Semiautomatic, 9mm, M9” in 1985.
The M9 served as the standard-issue sidearm from 1985 until 2017, when it was supplanted by the SIG Sauer M17/M18. It left behind a legacy of wartime service that ranged from the Gulf War to the 2003 Iraq invasion and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
The M9 was heavily proof-tested in battle by U.S. service members. In fact, the gun was immortalized in 2004 during the hellish Second Battle of Fallujah, which has since entered the lore of the U.S. Marine Corps as one its greatest battles.
Design & Function
At its most basic, the Beretta 92 is a hammer-fired, double-action/single-action handgun that uses an open-slide, short-recoil-delayed locking-block system with a decocker and a double-stack magazine.
The double-action/single-action trigger was very popular with military and law enforcement agencies over the years. It allows users to fire their first round on a heavier and longer double-action pull, while all subsequent shots use a shorter lighter single-action pull for speedier and more accurate follow-up shots. It also gives the gun a second-strike capability if – in very rare instances – the first hammer strike fails to ignite the round’s primer.
The design is often seen as an added safety feature, since the first trigger pull requires more deliberate force. That said, it has fallen somewhat out of favor in recent years with popular guns like the Glock 17/19 and SIG P320 featuring single-action-only triggers.
Adding a decocker to the gun allows a shooter to reset the gun to a double-action trigger after firing when they placed the gun on safe. This was another very common demand among the world’s militaries and law enforcement.
The real innovation is in the slide and the locking system. The open-slide design is a deliberate feature, even if it gives the gun a distinct and attractive profile. Removing most of the top front of the slide reduces the chances of feeding/ejection issues, such as stove-pipe jams. There’s just less slide material to get hung up on as rounds enter the chamber and brass flies out, and it lightens the overall weight of the slide.
You can see the Walther P38 heritage in the Beretta 92’s hinged locking-block system. Instead of the barrel tilting downward to unlock, as you would see on a Glock 17, the locking block operates lugs. These lugs are pulled down to unlock the action after firing when the locking block is pushed back and drops into a recess. As the recoil spring pushes the slide forward again, the block rises and relocks the gun. It creates a very smooth slide action.
The Beretta is slightly different from its predecessors because it uses a direct-feed magazine system. Simply put, Beretta designed its gun and magazines to operate without the need of a feed ramp, which is a common area for malfunctions. Instead, the magazine holds the rounds higher inside the action so they feed more directly into the chamber.
Related: Wilson Combat 92G Centurion Tactical Review – Ultimate Beretta 92?
The use of a double-stack magazine put Beretta in a strong position given the U.S. military’s later demand for a new gun with a capacity of at least 13 rounds. The Beretta 92 offered a standard 15-round capacity. This has only increased with flush-fit options now available in 17 and 18 rounds. There are extended magazines that generally offer anywhere from 20-30 rounds.
New Models
There’s hardly space here to mention all the new models of the Beretta 92, and I’m sure more are already on the way. Still, it’s worth noting that Beretta has put a lot of effort into pushing out newer, better versions of a now classic design.
The company doesn’t seem poised to let the design fade. Here’s a look at just two new models that have already come out for 2024:
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If it isn’t clear, we tend to be huge Beretta 92 fans here at Guns.com, and we have the nerd chops to prove it. If you want more information on the Beretta 92 – from its history to our personal shooting experiences – check out our recent podcast:
Two Guys One Gun, Episode 6: The Beretta 92
Final Thoughts
It’s become almost fashionable to refer to the “classic” Beretta 92 as somehow outdated, too bulky, overrated, or even eccentric. Yet, while it certainly is a classic design at this point, it is hardly a gun destined for the design dust bin any time soon.
The innovation, reliability, and shooting performance that won the Beretta 92 its place as the U.S. military’s standard-issue M9 pistol for more than three decades across three major wars has hardly diminished today. In recent years, if anything, the gun has seen a resurgence.
