The U.S. military has adopted the SIG 320 (M17 & M18) platforms which means the Beretta 92 series (M9 and its variants) will be phased out.
The M9 was adopted in 1985. The replacement of the 1911A1 was met with a lot of resistance and even some intentional sabotage but that's all history now. Good or bad, like it or hate it; The U.S.A. finally went with NATO and pretty much the rest of the world and embraced the 9mm Lugar cartridge. Now, 34 years later, the Beretta is being retired and we are moving on again.
For those of you that were around and paying attention in the 1980's - it was an AMAZING time! There was a LOT going on. The Cold War was in full swing, the economy was a roller coaster with some incredible highs and a few lows, we were finally coming out of the post Vietnam era, The "wonder-nine" pistol fad was in full force, American law enforcement was transitioning from DA revolvers to semi-auto pistols, Europe was dealing with terrorists and America was dealing with crime. In terms of firearms trends - it was a very interesting time !
Ultimately, the Beretta 92 was adopted as America's new military sidearm and it was also gaining acceptance with American law enforcement. Looking back at the Beretta now, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it was a very unusual combination of old world and modern design.
The Beretta 92 series was the result of a LOT of incremental development over decades. I think it's safe to say that the Beretta Model 1951 is the grand daddy of the model 92. By the early 1980's the Beretta 92 was a pretty mature design that had gone through a lot of permutations.
The frame was an intricate aluminum forging with a substantial amount of machining. The open top slide was classic Beretta but it was also the final product of forging, complex machining and lots of finishing. Beautiful but expensive. The pistol contains a large number of forged and machined parts, tiny springs and pins and requires a fair amount of skilled labor to assemble. While many pistols utilized the Browning tilting barrel short recoil system, Beretta used the Walther locking block system. Every time I look at the details of a Beretta 92 I'm awed by the sophistication of the engineering. The gun was/is complex but it functions wonderfully !
The Beretta 92 really represents the LAST of the Old World pistol designs to be embraced by the military, law enforcement and the public.
So my hat is off to the Old World pistol that served us well !