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) 1911s. The revised parts list included barrels, bushings, link pins, sear springs, ejectors, firing pin stops, mainspring housings and mainsprings, all from Nowlin Manufacturing. A Marine operator may shoot as many as 80,000 rounds from this pistol during a training-cycle and subsequent deployment. 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. However, as the U.S. Marine Corps began its process of hand selecting members from its
Force Recon to be submitted to
USSOCOM as Marine Corps Special Operations Command, Detachment One (MCSOCOM Det-1), the selection of a .45 ACP M1911A1-based pistol meant roughly 150 units would be needed, more quickly than the PWS could produce them, as PWS were already backlogged with producing
DMRs,
USMC SAM-Rs, and updating
M40A1s to
M40A3s, so DET-1 began the search for COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) surrogates to use.
ICQB Pistol Discovering that the
Los Angeles Police Department was pleased with their special Kimber-made M1911 pistols, a single source request was issued to
Kimber Manufacturing for a similarly built pistol, despite the imminent release of their TLE/RLII models. Due to wear and tear of the MEU(SOC) pistols and increasing numbers of Marine personnel in Force Recon and MARSOC, the U.S. Marines began looking commercially for replacements. Marine Corps Systems Command announced February 17, 2005, that it was going to purchase 150 Springfield Armory Professional Model pistols for use as MEU(SOC) pistols. This is the same pistol used by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation SWAT and Hostage Rescue Teams; however, it had previously been rejected for adoption as the ICQB. Despite the planned purchase of the commercial pistols, Marine Corps Systems Command has continued to solicit parts to build additional MEU(SOC) pistols. In 2010, requirements were once more issued for an off-the-shelf system to replace the custom-built pistols. Three pistols were offered to the USMC as a replacement for current M45 Pistols. Colt offered a modified version of their O1980RG (Rail Gun) pistol, which is derived from their existing XSE line of 1911-style pistols with a desert sand-colored surface treatment and Novak night sights. Springfield Armory entered a variant of the full-sized Loaded MC Operator M1911A1 pistol with a military-standard 1913 rail, tritium night sights and finished with a two-tone black slide with an olive-drab green frame. The third entry from Karl Lippard Designs, a
Colorado Springs-based arms maker, was called the Close Quarter Battle Pistol: an M1911A1-style pistol, built using S7
tool steel and a large number of proprietary components including accessory rail, grip safety, and sights. On July 20, 2012, the Colt 1911 Rail Gun was selected and won a contract to initially deliver 4,000 pistols for
MARSOC and Force Recon. The pistol was redesignated the
M45A1 Close Quarter Battle Pistol (CQBP) and up to 12,000 will be delivered. The Colt design is considered an upgrade of the previous pistol, not an entirely new design. ==Specifications==