Beretta M9 Pistol

The Beretta M9, formally designated the Pistol, Semiautomatic, 9mm, M9, is the United States military's service name for the Italian-designed Beretta 92FS semi-automatic pistol, a nine-millimeter sidearm adopted as the standard-issue handgun of the American armed forces beginning in 1985. Its adoption replaced the long-serving M1911 pistol, chambered in the older .45 ACP cartridge, with a higher-capacity 9mm design more in line with the standard NATO pistol cartridge used by many of the United States's allied militaries. The M9 went on to serve as the primary US military sidearm for several decades, equipping generations of American service members before later being supplemented and, in some units, replaced by newer handgun designs in the twenty-first century.