If it were in the past, the military definitely wouldn't have considered the issue of close combat.
Humans have moved on from the era of cold weapons for hundreds of years, and close combat in war has been a thing of the past for decades. With the development of science and technology, humans in warfare have increasingly moved away from face-to-face combat, relying instead on beyond visual range strikes.
Even in short-range, within visual range combat, using firearms, artillery, and the like is enough to take out enemies when they get close.
In the past, the military's solution was to use pistols, equipping soldiers with an assault rifle as the primary weapon in combat, and when enemies got too close, to use pistols for close-range combat.
After all, in modern warfare, nobody equips ordinary soldiers with body armor or protective gear like that; a pistol's penetration is enough to take down the enemy in front.
