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| CZ P13 is the latest pistol adopted by a majorish military the German Bundeswehr. |
Past
Handguns, sidearms, pistols and revolvers have been in service for centuries. They first materialized when the firearms first started to diversify from the first hand cannons and the píšťala made its debut in the 1420’s. The following centuries saw especially the free hand limited cavalry embracing the sidearms as a complement to their sabers and lances as well as officers taking them along for personal protection. While often replaced with shorter muskets and rifles aka. carbines, the pistol also frequently appeared in the hands of artillery men, sailors and NCO’s of the various armies.
The prime of the sidearm was roughly between the American Civil War and the First World War. The initial surge of popularity started with the invention of a reliable cap and ball revolver that allowed cavalry to outgun musket armed infantry at close ranges. The close range trench combat in WW1 was the last time pistols would have a significant advantage over other infantry small arms on a larger scale. Even by the end of WW1 new innovations like submachine guns and the American Pedersen device were pushing the sidearm into a truly secondary role.
Light and handy M1 Carbine
Pistols remained in widespread frontline service during WW2, but many armies tried to find alternatives that were more potent and easier to master like the US M1 Carbine.
Present
In the modern military use the pistol has several different mission sets:
Offensive combat
Troops with main focus on tech
Personal protection in the rear
Symbol of rank
The pre planned offensive combat roles of the pistol have been mostly replaced, first with SMG’s and then with assault rifles and carbines. The only real advantage a pistol can give is the ability to maintain a suppressed and relatively silent weapon for short range use without having to sacrifice the medium and long range performance of the primary carbine. There are solutions to this, such as a suppressed .300 Blackout carbines, but these have the hassle of needing two separate types of ammunition and the possibility of mix-ups it can cause.
Suppressed Glock 19 in 9x19 has been a special forces favorite for decades
There are plenty of troops near the front lines or conflicted areas whose primary or even secondary job is not to engage the enemy with small arms and have been at times issued pistols for self defense. Self defense against hostile infantry is a tall order for any one handed weapon and various submachine guns and carbines have mostly replaced pistols. The French MAS-38 submachine gun was actually designed primarily as a personal defense weapon for the NCO:s and Specialists and not as an offensive tool. MAS-38 was chambered in the chosen caliber of the Gun Jesus, Ian McCollum, the venerable 7.5 French Long.
For a long time it has been customary to strip soldiers of their weapons when they are staying at the rear, but with the current porous battlefields and terrorism threats having a level of self defence capability might be useful. Some nations have solved this issue with vacationing soldiers carrying their service rifles even when out and about in a friendly city, some issue sidearms in concealed carry holsters and some try to saturate the relevant areas with military police, who are another large pistol user group in many armies.
Future
So what kind of a pistol would be the optimal solution to the non SOF pistol needs?
It needs to be reliable, that is the one non negotiable thing.
Cheap so that it can be liberally issued to those who benefit from it.
Lightweight so that it will be carried “always”
Easy to shoot and handle to minimize the training time
Enough magazine capacity to hit and disable two assailants
Pistols can be divided into two groups based on the power of their cartridge. Those that require a locked breech and those that function with simple blowback. The line goes roughly at 9x19 Parabellum which always requires a locking system to be practical in size and weight. No, a Hi-point is not practical!
By downsizing the cartridge to something like modern .32ACP / 7.65x17 would allow a compact polymer framed, straight blowback, striker fired pistol to hold up to 20 rounds of ammunition, while being lighter and less recoiling than any 9mm pistol. By integrating an ultra compact red dot sight to the slide the required training time to learn to hit and control the pistol goes down..
7.65x17 and 9x19 from 1900 and 1908 respectively
In addition such a pistol can be produced extremely economically. There are plenty of commercial options that have most of these properties, but might need a step up in quality control and some features to meet service standards like extended grip, optics cut or rechambering from .380APC or 5.7 to .32ACP.
Smith&Wesson Bodyguard 2.0 is on the right ballpark size and action wise.
Pistols like the Kel-tec PR-3AT Defender and the PR-5.7 could be simplified to blowback operation. These are also radical for having a fixed magazine, but that could also be an advantage in an emergency self defense weapon. Or something like the more traditional S&W Shield and bodyguard series could be adapted.
Kel-Tec PR-5.7
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| VZ83 is a simple and rugged blowback pistol |
The Czech VZ82 pistol was a good attempt at this sort of a firearm, but the 9mm Makarov chambering of the military model led to low capacity.
Would this be a less capable combat weapon than the current generation 9mm sidearms like Glock-17 or Sig P-320? Yes for Glock, maybe for the Sig, depending if they continue shooting when they feel like it. But this could be easily offset by distributing a suitable PDW or a carbine widely enough to the combat troops.
Writing this article has been painful for a pistol afficionado who loves steel framed and hammer fired "proper" pistols. But the amount of soldiers who can actually use the performance edge these guns give is rather minimal.
In the next article I will explore the future of the PDW / “other arms carbine”.
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Petri Mäkelä
9.10.2026
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