Tactical Knife

The Tactical Knife is a weapon attachment in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for handguns. It allows the Character to hold both a pistol and a knife at the same time, letting the player stab about twice as fast. The Tactical Knife can be used with all handguns, although in the single player campaign it is only used with the USP.45. The knife is held using the Harries technique, which is mainly used to hold a flashlight, as seen in Call of Duty: Black Ops missions "Project Nova" and "Victor Charlie".

The ability to knife faster and more frequently is advantageous in close quarters combat. Some players will combine the Tactical Knife with Marathon, Lightweight or Cold-Blooded, and Commando or Ninja perks to create a fast, specialized melee class. This is often looked down at by other players. A common full class of this system uses a Handgun with the Tactical Knife with Throwing knife or Semtex, and Flash or Stun Grenades and the 5 perks listed above. These classes are sometimes used with the Heartbeat Sensor so the user can locate enemies and reduce the chance of being killed by running into groups of enemies.

Some innovative Riot Shield users might equip this on their secondaries, so they can quickly knife the enemies who try to knife them. As well as counter other Riot Shield users, since flanking their side is easier with the Tactical Knife than it is with a shield. The logic behind having a Tactical Knife and a Riot Shield is simply for better melee versatility, considering the Riot Shield is a two-hit kill unlike the Tactical Knife. However, this setup is rather useless in Hardcore game modes because of the reduced health system, the Riot Shield is an instant kill.

While Akimbo has the con of removing ADS, the Tactical Knife attachment seems to offer no downside whatsoever versus the base weapon, albeit, your pistol in first person will sway more and your character will move his pistol in his right hand to compensate the uneven weight in both hands.

Trivia

 * The Tactical knife is modeled after the Blackhawk Tatang.
 * In early demonstration videos, such as the Cliffhanger video, the knife user slashed with it. In the final version, the user stabs with the knife. This is likely because stabbing is a quicker motion than slashing and produces more lethal results. Also, the knife model was reused from the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The model was changed to the newer Blackhawk Tatang which also serves as other knives in the game, but the icon still shows the Call of Duty 4 knife.
 * In singleplayer, the USP .45 always appears with a Tactical Knife, although never identified as such.
 * In multiplayer, if the player looks at someone using the Tactical Knife, it would appear as if the user had no Tactical Knife at all, just holding the pistol with two hands. Also, Tactical Knife uses same player model melee animation as generic melee in third person.
 * The .44 Magnum has a different reload when equipped with the Tactical Knife most likely because the .44 Magnum doesn't have any magazine, but a chamber to insert the bullets.
 * When the M9 is equipped with the Tactical Knife in multiplayer, the reload animation doesn't show a magazine.
 * Many players who run around a map 'Knifing', will often have a Tactical Knife, as it allows for a faster attack, although it is easier to miss somebody.
 * It is harder to do "360 knife" kills with a Tactical Knife. Because of the slashing animation of the ordinary knife, players who have a high sensitivity spin around while knifing, making it almost impossible to miss the target if they are close enough to melee.
 * Kills with the Tactical Knife do not count towards the Veteran challenge for the gun, only kills by shooting will count towards the challenge. However, kills with the Tactical Knife do count towards the Marksman challenge for the weapon.
 * There is a visual recoil increase when using the tactical knife on the M9.
 * When using the Tactical Knife on the Desert Eagle in Modern Warfare 2, it's sights become correctly aligned.
 * Many players using the Tactical Knife will combine Marathon, Lightweight and Commando for an ultimate knifing class. However, this is not praised by the community of Call of Duty players, and are called "MLC'ers" or more commonly, "Quick-Knifers" and "Tact-Knifers".