What knives do the US military use?

There seems to be a misconception among civilians that the US military trains everyone in hand-to-hand close quarter combat (aka H2H CQC), i.e. melee, using edged melee weapons such as fixed bayonets and giant gruesome Bowie knives, stilettos with foot long blades, or a Rambo gladius (ancient Roman short sword). That’s the completely fictional stuff of movies, TV and online games like Call of Duty, none of which bear any resemblance to reality. The absurdity of battle scenes in which the principal antagonist and protagonist throw down their firearms, whip out their knives, and engage in a fight to the death grappling match straight out of WWE, with giant knives added, while everyone else on both sides stands back to watch, winners take all, losers go home, has me ROTFLMFAO every time. There’s also the misconception that special operations personnel sneak up on everyone and slit their throats. I’m ROTFLMFAO when I see that too. Yet more Hollyweird Myth. Throat slitting is noisy, very noisy as the victim gurgles loudly, struggling for air while thrashing violently. Maintaining stealth to get that close to someone is extremely high risk. Review the Bin Laden raid, which is well documented, to see how it’s really done with surprise, diversions, snipers and completely overwhelming force in numbers and arms. H2H CQC is a martial arts skill that takes more than a few days to adequately learn, a lot more than a few days, and then it must be maintained. It’s the stuff of Special Forces, MARSOC and Navy SEALS whose training allows the time to learn and maintain it. Even they avoid using it in actual operations if at all possible, except as an absolute last resort in self defense. It’s simply too risky. Need to take out the lone sentry quietly? Use a sniper with a good silencer, and do it at a distance.
My response here will be almost completely limited to knives the US military currently procures and officially issues . It won’t include the occasional special unit buys of off the shelf utility knives or multi-tools using battalion level discretionary funds (about 400–700 soldiers), which is relatively rare now. Attempting to dig into the past
(a) isn’t relevant to the question, and
(b) would fill an encyclopedia just with the 20th Century.
Contrary to popular (civilian) belief, there is no “knife” – utility or otherwise – issued to each and every soldier, to have and to hold forever in their pocket, until death do they part. The Swiss, Germans, Dutch and others may do that, notably with a Victorinox version of a Trekker, or a variant thereof. The US does not. The famous Camillus pocket knife is long gone, and even that wasn’t general issue. It had to be special ordered as needed to facilitate performing specific tasks. During my career, you could buy them at the Clothing Sales Store. In 21 years, we never ordered and “issued” any to anyone.
Bayonets:
These are stored in and issued from arms rooms as needed for training (which would be rare) or an operational mission. They’re unit property and stored with the unit’s weapons (e.g. rifles, pistols, machine guns, etc.). See USMC remarks. The standard bayonet for all services except the USMC is the M9 which has a wire cutter and a sawback. It is as much a large utility and survival knife – if not more so – than it is a weapon for the end of a rifle – as compared to its M7 predecessor.

The M11 EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) knife is an M9 variant without the muzzle ring or bayonet lug mechanism. Its pommel is made for use as a hammer. Blade and grip are otherwise the same, as well as the sheath.

The USMC now uses the OKC-3S which omits the saw back and wire cutter, and adds a section of serration near the hilt, but isn’t much different otherwise.

In some USMC units, individuals who are assigned pistols are issued a Ka-Bar in lieu of the OKC-3S, which are unit property, just like the bayonet. It’s not a general issue item to every Marine and it’s not very different from their bayonet – albeit without a muzzle ring or bayonet lug. Its pommel can be used for bashing things.

Special Operations
The only personnel generally being issued a fixed blade knife other than a bayonet are Special Operations Forces during their tactical operations:
* US Army Special Forces, MARSOC, SEALs, and USAF Special Warfare
* Survival knives for aircrew as part of their survival gear.
This is the current knife that’s been given to every soldier that successfully completes and graduates from the US Army’s Special Forces school since 2002, along with their green beret and SF crest, the Chris Reeves “Yarborough” knife. Only those who currently are or have been a Green Beret can buy one, and you have to be able to prove it with various documents. There is a civilian version called the Green Beret knife. It’s more survival knife than fighting knife with a 7 inch blade and just under 12.5 inch total length.

US Navy SEALs have been issued the Mk III Navy Knife made by Ontario Knife Company, with a 6.5 inch saw back stainless steel blade. Like the current bayonets, it’s as much or more a survival knife.

MCSOCOM Detachment 1 issued a Strider MARSOC SMF to each of its Marines (~150) when the detachment was formed in 2003. A matching number was made with civilian serial numbers. Det-1 was disbanded in 2006 and became the current MARSOC. As far as I know, the ~300+ production run by Strider was the only one and thus they’re not currently issued. At the least, it was a special program put together by the detachment’s first commanding officer. It’s the only folding knife in this group.

Air crews are issued one of two knives as last I knew the new one hadn’t replaced all the old ones yet. The 1958 aircrew survival knife is the Ontario Knife Company 499 with a 5 inch sawback blade and a hammer pommel that can be used to pound on things.

The Ontario 1400 Aircrew Survival Egress Knife (ASEK) superseded the 499 in 2003, but AFAIK, it hasn’t been fully fielded yet; not all the 499 have been replaced and are still being issued to aircrews as part of their survival gear.

USAF Special Warfare has four distinct roles and units to fulfill them: Combat Controller, Pararescue, Special Recon, and Tactical Air Control Party. Other than the specialized equipment specific to their mission roles, they piggyback primarily on the US Army for their gear. Knife? Haven’t seen one unique to them. If there is one issued for operational use, it would undoubtedly be one of the above – other than the tightly controlled Yarborough (Green Beret).
Personal Knives
Take a US Army company of 120–200 soldiers, have them do a pocket and belt dump, and you’ll find all manner of personal knives, with some of them carrying several. Beyond bayonets, special ops and aircrews, the US military is very much a BYOK (bring your own knife) affair. The most common now is the multi-tool, made by several companies, notably Leatherman. Following that is the ubiquitous Victorinox Swiss Army Knife (aka SAK) in a plethora of models. The knives service personnel are allowed to have and carry is very command dependent. Individual commanders, usually at installation, or major field command level, will have a policy regarding personal weapons, and they often cover bladed weapons: knives, swords etc. Personal firearms are very highly controlled and heavily restricted. Bladed weapons aren’t generally controlled nearly as much beyond banning the ridiculous and absurd.
I carried three knives when deployed, for training or operationally:
Victorinox Woodsman : This one was made circa 1978 and the model is long out of production. Wore it in a small leather pouch on my belt in garrison duty; the pouch to my LBE when wearing battle rattle. I fixed more stuff with this out in the middle of nowhere than I could ever begin to recount in a memoir of my military career, and opened thousands of C-ration cans with it:

Buck 110 : Also made circa 1978 I didn’t know this would become an iconic lock-back knife – or perhaps it already was when I bought it and just didn’t know it. Occasionally wore it in garrison on my belt, but not very often. Also attached it to my LBE when wearing battle rattle.

M7 or M9 Bayonet : Shown here is the M7, which was the original bayonet made for the M-16 rifle. Only worn with battle rattle during the first half of my career. The M7 was superseded and replaced by the much more utilitarian and beefier M9 in 1986, although it took a while to replace the hundreds of thousands of M7s across all the Armed Forces and US Coast Guard – which is what I wore with battle rattle during the second half of my career. The M7 was made primarily for jabbing and stabbing on the end of a rifle, which led to significant damage and breakage when abused as a big utility knife. It wasn’t made for prying or similar (ab)use. The M9 is already shown above, so I won’t repeat it here.

This is fairly representative of what you’d find today, with the multi-tool replacing the Swiss Army Knife in most pockets, and a much newer and thinner locking folding knife than the heavier Buck 110 with its wide brass bolsters. I now have a SwissTool X, the Victornox equivalent of a Leatherman, representative of the current multi-tools.

I’m certain there will be those who will ignore my bold comment above regarding this covering current knives used across the services, feeling compelled to comment and complain about how I omitted WWI trench knives, WWII stilettos, Korean and Vietnam War knives (usually a Randall), or what their father or grandfather used in days of yore (do I hear Gerber Mk II?) – or what some specific company or battalion bought and issued everyone in that unit (usually a Leatherman; most of that went on during Desert Shield and Desert Storm when money for it was an open checkbook). That’s not in the scope of the question – or in my answer to it. Thanks.

Wanbasion Black Stainless Steel Knife Set, Sharp Kitchen Knife

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