A recent photo series released by the U.S. Navy showed the iconic Beretta M9 still very much in service with the country's sea service. 

The crew of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) was recently seen putting the M9 service pistol through its paces on a makeshift range set up on the ship's helicopter deck. 
 

"Watchstanders must prepare for anything, including the use of force when necessary," said the ship's social media feed on Wednesday. "Wayne E. Meyer ensures its sailors are ready with regular small arms training to ensure we can protect the ship and its crew from anyone at any time!"

Adopted to replace the M1911A1 .45 Government Issue in 1985, the Beretta M9 became the standard sidearm across the then-Department of Defense, with some exceptions for specialty units. The initial five-year, $56.4 million contract to produce 315,930 units for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard ended up running more than three decades, greatly surpassing those numbers. 

In 2017, the SIG P320 won the Army's Modular Handgun System contract to replace the Beretta, and the last military contract M9 left Beretta's Gallatin, Tennessee, factory in September 2021. While the Navy has acquired 60,000 SIG M18s to replace its current M9s, as shown by the photos from Wayne E. Meyer, the ol' Italian Stallion continues to ride with some units.

And it's not just on the Meyer, as photos taken recently on the cruiser USS Princeton and the amphibious ship USS Iwo Jima show. 
 

This shouldn't be surprising, as most ships traditionally maintain the same small arms locker inventory they were originally outfitted with when commissioned into service, unless they go through a long-term multi-month/year overhaul process. As a warship can be in service for 20 or 30 years or more, that can leave its small arms locker a bit...dated.

For instance, in the first couple years of World War II, it was common for Navy ships to still have supplies of cutlasses in their inventory for boarding teams – items that, ironically, became useful as ersatz machetes for Marines fighting across the jungles of the Western Pacific. During Vietnam, some vessels still had Tommy guns in their armory. As Meyer commissioned in 2009, having Berettas on board tracks. 

Further, the service tends to keep older small arms on hand much longer than is typical for Army and Marine units. After all, the M14 is still often seen in service afloat. 

Nonetheless, the cool and classy M9 remains a thing of beauty and a great shooter, so we don't blame the Navy at all for keeping it around.