Future Weapons by Kevin Dockery

Author:Kevin Dockery
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2007-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

XM9/XM10 TRIALS

In August 1977, the Air Force initiated a search for a possible replacement for both the M1911A1 pistol and a number of the revolvers that were still in use. In part because of their compact size and ease of use, the Air Force had retained the use of revolvers long after the rest of the service had relegated them to secondary use at most. One of the reasons the revolver, specifically the Smith & Wesson Model 15, remained in use for so long was that the weapon could be operated with no more action to prepare it to fire other than pulling the trigger. The appeal of this simple operation was the concern that air crew and pilot, the individuals who were most often issued a revolver as a survival/personal defense weapon, would have a great chance of being injured if they were involved in a crash. The revolver could be drawn and fired with either hand.

In the post–World War II Army, there had been an investigation of a possible replacement for the M1911A1 both to give a smaller and lighter weapon as well as to examine the use of the 9 × 19 mm round to bring the U.S. military into a more common ammunition usage with NATO. The tests were conducted in 1955 and resulted in no new weapon for the military; the existing stocks of the M1911A1 were considered satisfactory for the foreseeable future. What did result from the tests were several new handguns that were released on the civilian market. As a smaller and lighter M1911A1, the Colt Firearms Company produced the Commander, a slightly shortened version of the government-model pistol with a variation chambered for 9 × 19 mm. Smith & Wesson developed the Model 39, a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol with a double-action trigger mechanism. That weapon was later adopted by the U.S. Navy SEALs as their 9 mm handgun in the 1960s. A suppressed version of the Model 39 was also produced for the SEALs in 1968, the Mark 22 Mod 0, commonly called the Hush Puppy.

Tests had established that the 9 mm cartridge could be as effective as the .45 ACP, if not more so as an effect of its higher velocity. The examination of both rounds had shown that there was very little difference between the two when they were placed side by side during lethality tests. No appreciable difference could be seen between the .45 ACP and the 9 × 19 mm in terms of the damage they did to the human body. The primary means of stopping power from a handgun round was based on shot placement; the more accurately the round hit the target in a lethal spot, the quicker the target went down. There was no true knock-down power in the .45 that made it superior to the 9 mm that could be found in the tests. There was little argument that the 9 mm was an easier round to learn to shoot, and as such, that made it more accurate.

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