Manufactured in the mid-1970's, this pistol was developed and submitted to the U.S. military's Joint Service Small Arms Program (JSSAP). The goal of this program primarily came about to find a replacement for the aging stock of M1911A1 pistols that were still currently in use by much of the military, as well as to replace the plethora of other sidearms that had been acquired, primarily by the Air Force, who had unacceptably high levels of variation in caliber and model of sidearm. The program would come to be known as the XM-9 project, with the accepted pistol becoming known as the M9. Many companies answered the call and submitted pistols for the initial tests in 1977, including Heckler & Koch, Smith & Wesson, Beretta, FN Herstal, Colt, Walther, Star, and Steyr. The pistols were put through rigorous testing by the Air Force, however the Army didn't approve of their methods, and in 1983 a second round of tests were performed, this time by the Army. Only two of the pistols from the initial test were resubmitted, these being the Beretta 92FB and the Smith & Wesson 459. After the second trials, the only two submissions left standing were from Beretta and SIG Sauer, with the Beretta eventually selected and adopted as the M9. The example is one of only 30 of the pistols which were submitted to the trials. The left side of the slide has the standard Smith & Wesson nomenclature. The left of the frame is marked with the serial number and model designation and the right has the Smith & Wesson trade mark. It is fitted with serrated blade front and notch rear sights, ambidextrous thumb safety, checkered plastic grips, and a lanyard loop on the butt. A plethora of documentation is included with the pistol including Smith & Wesson memos and invoices, some of which specifically list this pistol by serial number. Also included is the original box, an extra adjustable rear sight, extra magazine, and cleaning tools.

Excellent, retains 95% plus of the original blue and black anodized finishes with some scattered light handling marks, that are typical of the rigors of military testing, and some light edge wear, primarily at the front of the slide. The grips are very fine with some light handling marks scattered throughout and mostly sharp checkering. Mechanically excellent. This is a rare opportunity to own a piece of U.S. military sidearm development history!