Designed by John Moses Browing in 1909; it was the latest in a long line of automatic pistol designs starting with the model 1900 pistol that was one of the first to use a short recoil blowback mechanism. Interest by the United States army in the pistol was bought about by the discovery that the existing .38 calibre round was ineffective during the philipine conflict in 1899. Officers often reported that they had to shoot a number of times to bring the enemy down. Using the .45 Auto Cartridge Pistol round, The model 1911 later prooved to be highly effective as the near half inch round would cause large gaping wounds and would often cause the target soldier to be knocked down by the impact. Such was the kinetic transfer capabilities of the round. The pistol would prove to be extremely strong and robust and would be a design standard for all automatic pistols that would follow it. It served as the standard side arm of the U.S. Army until 1992