I would definitely not recommend Kimber, especially the Desert Warrior.

My personal experience with a TLE ll Kimber was bad. It has a chamber that is extremely tight, which is a common problem with these pistols. It leads to a failure to feed rounds, which is something you don't want for either self defense or competition. It would do this at least once per range trip. I think that Kimber covers this under warranty, but you have to pay shipping yourself to correct it. Plus for $900, I want a 1911 that will work out of the box.

As for the desert warrior, it seems that kimber set out to make a better pistol, which resulted in their faultiest one yet. See this thread.

As for my recommendation, a springfield trp operator seems like it would fit your needs.