MEU(SOC) pistol

Pistol, Caliber .45, MEU(SOC)
An MEU(SOC) 1911 pistol, built by PWS at Quantico, Virginia.
Type	Semi-automatic pistol
Place of origin	United States
Service history
Used by	United States Marine Corps
Wars	Panama, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan
Production history
Designer	Trained Weapons Training Battalion armorers at the Rifle Team Equipment Shop/USMC Precision Weapons Shop
Designed	1985
Specifications
Weight	2.44 lb (1.105 g) empty, w/ magazine
Length	8.25 in (210 mm)
Barrel length	5.03 in (127 mm)
Cartridge	.45 ACP
Action	Recoil-operated
Muzzle velocity	830 ft/s (244 m/s)
Effective firing range	70 m (maximum effective range)
Feed system	7 round detachable magazine

The MEU(SOC) pistol, ("Marine Expeditionary Unit"; "Special Operations Capable") officially designated the M45 MEUSOC, is a magazine-fed, recoil-operated, single-action, semiautomatic pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. It's a variant of the M1911, and has been the standard-issue side arm for the Force Recon Element of the United States Marine Corps' Marine Expeditionary Units since 1985. Its NATO Stock Number is 1005-01-370-7353.

In the late 1980s, USMC Colonel Robert Young laid out a series of specifications and improvements to make Browning's design ready for 21st century combat, many of which have been included in MEU(SOC) pistol designs.

In 2002, an article in American Handgunner stated that "Marine armorers from the Precision Weapons Section, MCBQ" are making 789 MEU (SOC) 1911's. Corporal Gravenese demonstrates the power of the pistol as shown as above. The revised parts list included barrels, bushings, link pins, sear springs, ejectors, firing pin stops, mainspring housings and mainsprings, all from Nowlin Manufacturing. Slides were ordered from Springfield Armory, with front sight pins, beavertail safeties and recoil spring guides from Ed Brown. Novak was contracted for rear sights, Wilson Combat provided extractors and mag release buttons, while King's Gun Works supplied ambidextrous thumb safeties.

A Marine operator may shoot as many as 80,000 rounds from this pistol during a training-cycle and subsequent deployment. However, it is more common for a Marine to return the pistol to the PWS at Quantico for a rebuild after 10,000 rounds have been fired. A rebuild entails discarding almost all of the gun's parts except for the frame, which prior to 2003 was a U.S. Government frame last manufactured in 1945. The frame is inspected and reused if it is still within military specifications. There are frames in the USMC inventory that have had as many as 500,000 rounds fired through them.