Description
Back in the early 1970s, Colt wasn’t waiting for permission to innovate. While the U.S. military was still debating what a “next-generation sidearm” should be, Colt was already building one. The result was the SSP, short for Stainless Steel Pistol or sometimes Stainless Service Pistol, a bold experiment in what the future of combat pistols might look like.
The timing was perfect. The 9x19mm NATO cartridge was becoming the global standard, and even the most die-hard .45 ACP loyalists could see the appeal of higher capacity and lighter recoil. But Colt didn’t just try to modernize the 1911; they threw the blueprint out completely.
The SSP featured a fixed barrel with no swinging link, a full-length external rail system guiding the slide, and a modular hammer and mainspring assembly that made field stripping surprisingly easy. It was sleek, efficient, and unlike anything Colt had built before. You could tell this was designed by people who were thinking years ahead.
One of its most impressive tricks was its modularity. With minimal parts changes, the SSP could convert between 9mm and .45 ACP. That concept, commonplace in today’s military pistols, was decades ahead of its time.
Only a handful of prototypes ever left the factory. Some went through testing, others vanished into collections or institutional archives. Finding one marked “COLT’S MODEL S S P / 45 ACP” is like spotting a unicorn.
Collectors don’t chase the SSP just for its rarity. They chase it because it represents Colt at its most daring a moment when the company reached for the future and came close to grabbing it.
