M45 Close Quarters Combat Pistol
The legendary Daniel Watters has unearthed compelling evidence that the Marine MEU(SOC) M1911 pistol has now been given the official designation “M45 Close Quarters Combat Pistol”.
Two documents , recently posted on Navy.mil, provide information about the procurement of slide assemblies for the M45. Unlike previous documents these do not refer to the MEU(SOC) designation and refer only to the “M45 Close Quarters Combat Pistol”.
Many thanks to Daniel for the information.
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P226 has also been adopted by british military but not in enough numbers in service to be standard issue. Mostly only special forces with them
Look guys, We can sit here for years griping and complaining about what gun the military should switch to. I swear by .45 cal and I swear by 7.62mm. The bigger the bullet the more knock down it has. As for the difference of the 92 and 1911: the 92 is bulkier but it holds more rounds which is good. But it shouldn't take 8 well placed center of mass shots to drop someone. Anything smaller than a .40 cal is garbage when it comes to pistols. The 1911 has 6 different magazine sizes if you want more lead (7,8,9,10,12,&20) and that's single stack and if you want to go bigger they make drum mags for 1911s. It all in the punch the bullet has when it hits.
357, 38 special, and 9mm can all be fired through the exact same barrel. There is hardly any size difference. Yes they can kill people but not as effectively as the .40, .45 and so on. I've got a lot of family and family friends in the military and being a grunt myself we all swear by the 1911 as would any delta boy out there.
Now, since the subject of the m-16 came up, how would you like to carry a really cool looking 22 into combat? All the 5.56mm is, is a extremely hot 22. Yes it causes unbelievable trauma when it starts to tumble but that's if you get lucky. In Vietnam when the rifle was first introduced it was calculated out to take roughly 8 rounds to com to kill on VC grunt. Where the M1A or M14 was calculated to 2 rounds. Don't get me wrong it's a reliable weapon but again stopping power is everything. So I hope to see the 1911 come back to into full service, and I hope someday I don't have to carry 180 pounds of garbage on top of the other 90 pounds of gear that is useful so I can carry a rifle that will drop someone with the first shot at center of mass. (I.e. 7.62 navy seal issue m-4 mod)