September 22 - Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation today announced an order from the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Armament Command (TACOM) to provide 12,000 pistols for shipment to the Afghanistan Border Patrol.

The order, received yesterday, is valued at approximately $3.4 million and is scheduled to ship in its entirety by December 2005.

This is the second shipment of Smith & Wesson pistols to the U.S. Army for delivery to Afghanistan security forces. The first shipment, completed in May, was shipped through the U.S. Army Security Command (USASC) to supply the Afghanistan National Army.

Both orders are for the Smith & Wesson model SW9VE, a double-action-only pistol.

"This order for the U.S. Army represents a new milestone in establishing Smith & Wesson as an ongoing supplier of domestic, high-quality firearms to the military branch of the federal government," said Michael Golden, president and chief executive officer.

"We established a strategy at Smith & Wesson early in calendar 2005 to increase our efforts in supplying pistols to the U.S. government and military segments. To that end, we have established a sales organization dedicated to that objective and have now won our second order in just five months."