Recent news from The Firearm Blog show Iran’s state ran small arms company introducing a new striker fired, polymer framed handgun. The name of the handgun appears to be M9-02 as marked on the slide and it is in 9x19mm NATO. It appears to be very similar to a Walther P99 in dimension and operation. Connections to the P99 might come from Turkey as we know that Iran has a strategic and business friendship with Turkey. From a small arms perspective, at the very same defense exposition these handguns were revealed at, Iran’s newest assault rifle was seen with a Turkish Safir AR magazine inserted on Silah Report. That being said, Turkish company Canik has produced a locally copied version of the P99 as the Canik 55 TP-9. This American blogger has put together an excellent comparison of a Walther P99 and the Canik 55 TP-9, showing the massive similarities.
From TFB-
It appears to be a polymer framed, striker fired, 9x19mm handgun, with much inspiration drawn from a Walter P99 through the method of disassembly and overall shape of the frame. The magazine appears to have an added capacity floor plate, leading me to assume that another magazine is available with a flush fit option. It seems to lack a manual safety, usually a requirement for military handguns, and it appears to have night sights by way of white dots embedded in them. Whether these sights light up at night through the use of tritium or another substance is unclear at this moment.
Iran is going through a substantial rearmament and redesign of a number of weapon systems, to include the primary issue rifle, taking on an AR15 appearance. Earlier, Iran produced a Glock-like handgun called the Raa’d (Thunderbolt), but this appears to have not been adopted in any substantial numbers or at all.
This image shows the differences and similarities between the Walther P99 and the Canik 55 TP-9
