Beretta Defense Technologies

Beretta Defense Technologies is the military and law enforcement arm of Beretta Holding, the Italian firearms group whose Beretta brand has been making guns since 1526 and remains owned by the same family after nearly five centuries, currently led by Franco Gussalli Beretta. Beretta Holding's civilian sporting business is still the larger part of the company by revenue, but BDT exists to pull together its defense-relevant brands under one roof and present them as a single supplier to militaries, police forces, and special intervention units rather than as a scattered collection of gun makers. The alliance includes some of the most recognized names in European small arms. Beretta itself supplies pistols and rifles, including the ARX assault rifle family and the descendants of the Beretta 92, the pistol adopted by the US military as the M9 in 1985 and carried by American troops for decades before the Army moved to a new sidearm.

Sako, the Finnish rifle maker BDT folded in, brings precision and sniper rifles used by military marksmen and law enforcement units across Europe. Benelli contributes shotguns, both for close-quarters military use and less-lethal law enforcement applications, while Steiner Optics and Burris Optics supply sighting systems, and RWS, Norma, and other ammunition brands under the Beretta Holding umbrella round out the offering with rounds matched to the group's own weapons. BDT organizes its pitch to customers around what it calls effects rather than product categories: close-range engagements, intermediate-range engagements, and precision engagements, aiming to offer a matched set of weapon, optic, and ammunition for each rather than selling components separately. It has also moved into counter-UAS work, adding drone defense to a portfolio that started as small arms and optics, reflecting how much that threat has grown for infantry and security forces since Ukraine and other recent conflicts made cheap drones a routine battlefield hazard.

Beretta Holding as a whole keeps roughly three-quarters of its revenue in civilian sporting arms, with defense and law enforcement making up the smaller remaining share, which is part of why BDT exists as a distinct commercial front: it lets the group compete for military and police contracts under a defense-focused identity without folding that business into the sporting goods brand most customers associate with hunting and target shooting. Beretta Holding is headquartered in Gardone Val Trompia in northern Italy, in the same region where Pietro Beretta's original workshop operated five hundred years ago, and BDT's constituent brands manufacture across Italy, Finland, the US, and Germany rather than from a single plant.