Beretta Defense Technologies announced Monday that the U.S. Army has purchased a quarter million dollars worth of additional M9 pistols from Beretta U.S.A. Corp.

The Army acquired the additional pistols by issuing the sixth delivery order to date against a contract for up to 100,000 pistols awarded by the Army to Beretta U.S.A. Corp. in September 2012.

The Beretta M9 is a 9x19mm caliber pistol adopted by the United States Armed Forces in 1985. To date, Beretta has delivered more than 600,000 M9 pistols, with 18,000 already scheduled for delivery under the new five-year contract.

The M9, which has been in U.S. production since 1987, is manufactured at the Beretta U.S.A. facility located in Accokeek, Md.

In addition to receiving the delivery order for additional 9mm pistols, Beretta U.S.A. has been fulfilling U.S. military orders for M9 parts during the past year.  “Throughout 2014 Beretta U.S.A. has been performing First Article Testing on new M9 parts and has begun the delivery of thousands of these components to U.S. military depots,” said Gabriele de Plano, Beretta U.S.A.’s Vice President of Military Marketing & Sales, in a statement.

“The average reliability of all M9 pistols tested at Beretta U.S.A. is 17,500 rounds without a stoppage,” de Plano added. “During one test of 12 pistols, fired at Beretta U.S.A. under Army supervision, Beretta-made M9 pistols shot 168,000 rounds without a single malfunction. The average durability of Beretta M9 slides is more than 35,000 rounds, the point at which U.S. Army testing ceases.  The average durability of M9 frames is more than 30,000 rounds and the average durability of M9 locking blocks is 22,000 rounds.”