Italian gunsmith Beretta finds itself on the wrong foot to replace the U.S. armed forces current military pistol, its own Beretta M9.

The U.S, military recently rejected for the second time Beretta's attempt to upgrade the M9 to gain an edge in the ongoing U.S. Army's Modular Handgun System competition. The competition will award the winner $400 million to replace up to 500,000 military pistols -- mostly Beretta M9s -- with a new sidearm.

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Beretta first offered to make changes to the basic Beretta M9 design and then proposed to upgrade the Army's inventory of M9s with a new and improved design Beretta called the M9A3. The Army rejected both ploys.

Beretta's third attempt comes in the form of a new pistol distinguished by its hammerless design.

The Beretta APX is the gunsmith's first-ever "striker-fired" or hammerless pistol.

The weapon features a stainless-steel chassis sheathed in a polymer frame reinforced with fiberglass. The weapon is 192 mm long; 33 mm wide and 142 mm high. It weighs 760 grams with an empty magazine.

It will come in three calibers: two in 9 mm and one .40 S&W. The magazine will carry 17 rounds of 9 x 19 mm caliber.

The hammerless APX relies on an internal striker to ignite the primer and fire a round instead of using the more common external hammer. Gun experts say hammerless pistols are currently in favor with the Army because weapons of this sort are easier to fire and have a faster rate of fire.

The downside is they're more vulnerable to firing accidentally since a round is always kept chambered. But a more serious drawback for the Beretta, said analysts, is the design concept of the APX.

This design flies in the face of the well known preference of the Army for metal-framed pistols instead of polymer. The fact the APX does not have a .45 caliber option is also a disadvantage.

The main criticism of the Beretta M9 by American soldiers that have used it in combat is its lack of stopping power. One round is often insufficient to drop an enemy soldier.