In 1998, MRI moved manufacturing back to IMI, which later commercialized its small arms branch under the name Israel Weapon Industries.

Since December 2009, the Desert Eagle pistol has been produced in the United States at MRI's Pillager, Minnesota, facility.

[6] The design for the Desert Eagle was initiated by Bernard C. White of Magnum Research and Arnolds Streinbergs of Riga Arms Institute, who filed a US patent application for a mechanism for a gas-actuated pistol in January 1983.

With the safety off, pulling the trigger releases, allowing the hammer to fall downward, hitting the firing pin, and causing the chambered round to discharge.

The Desert Eagle uses a gas-operated ejection and chambering mechanism normally found in rifles, as opposed to the short recoil or blowback designs most commonly seen in semi-automatic pistols.

[6] Switching a Desert Eagle to another chambering requires only that the correct barrel, bolt assembly, and magazine be installed.

These are marked by the number 440 on the left lower side of the barrel, in numerals twice the size of other calibers, and without the preceding period.

[9] The California-approved version differs from the regular XIX models in that it has an automatic firing pin block and a two-slot Weaver-style rail for mounting optics.

The Desert Eagle has been featured in more than 600 films, television shows and video games, making it well known in popular culture.

[10] The commercial success of the pistol is due in part to its use in films, according to Magnum Research chairman and CEO John Risdall.

[11] By 2000, it had been used in over 40 films, including The Matrix,[12] Eraser, Red Heat, Last Action Hero, Cliffhanger, Demolition Man, Assassins, The Last Boy Scout, Double Impact, Austin Powers,[11] and the television series Reacher, season one.