Modification Of The M 16 Rifle example essay topic

The development of the M 16 rifle began with the research conducted at John Hopkins University in September of 1955. Research was conducted to question infantrymen, who fought in Korea, about their battle experiences as they pertain to firing their weapon. It was found that 95% of their firing was within 300 yards. Also, there were just as many lethal hits from un-aimed shoots as from aimed ones (it so happens that most of the interviewed were soldiers of the US Army, which may explain the inaccuracy). This information led the military to the conclusion that a. 22 caliber rifle capable of selective fire would be most conducive to current battle tactics.

The small caliber provides more control, and selective fire would enable a soldier to better control their RPM. With this information the military went to Eugene Stoner, a Marine Corps Veteran who started to design rifles after being decommissioned, and asked him if he was interested in designing a weapon based on their research. This was one of the better decisions that Uncle Sam made; get a Marine to make a rifle that even Army boys can shoot. The requirements for the new weapon were that it had to weight less than 6 pounds loaded, it had to be a. 22 caliber, it had to be selective fire capable and it had to be able to penetrate a steel helmet out to 500 meters. The rifle the military was using up to that date, the M 14, was a heavy, .

308 caliber, selective fire capable rifle. The benefits of a large caliber like the. 308 NATO, which are longer range and greater penetration, were no, longer needed for close combat. The rifle has actually some major disadvantages (other than the fact that it weighed about as much as a bicycle). Due to its large caliber, when fired in full-automatic mode, the rifle recoils so much, that only the first one or two bullets hit the target. Secondly, the large caliber means that the ammunition itself is quite heavy and large compared to an M 16 round.

This proved to be very heavy for the individual carrying the weapon. Its large size and heavy weight make it difficult for soldiers to use during combat situations. The M-14 isn't all bad, though, it could literally blow somone's head off, if you could hit him. It was very popular among soldiers due to its great reliability, It could be compared to an old truck; loud, powerful, but damn hard to live with. Despite it's disadvantages, the M 14 is still used by the military in limited quantities.

I personally feel that we should just clean them up, and sell them for big bucks to a third world country who would just love the darn things. Because the military demanded a. 22 caliber round which could penetrate a steel helmet at 500 meters, Stoner needed a more powerful cartridge than was currently available. Stoner had Remington Arms Company increase the capacity of their. 222 Remington to fire a '... 55-grain bullet at 3300 feet per second.

' Basically, they would throw a small bullet really fast. This new round meet the criteria, and compared to the. 308 NATO caliber round of the M 14 it was much lighter, smaller and produced less recoil when fired. Compared to the M-14's 10-inch movement of the target, the M-16 stays almost perfectly on the target when firing in full auto mode. This is not to say that one can fire an M-16 fully- automatic and expect to hit anything after 10 seconds, but it was a lot better than M-14. (side note: the M-16 A 2 has only a 1 round or 3 round burst option). Thus, a smaller cartridge, with less recoil keeps the rifle aimed at the target after fired.

Because the ammunition is lighter and smaller, soldiers can carry a lot more ammunition. The lower weight of the rifle itself benefits the soldiers simply by less weight, which they have to hold in their hands. This left the poor guys carrying the mortar tubes with the bad end of the stick. Besides that, it made the weapon easier to handle, which was probably the more important factor. When Stoner was designing the M 16, he used design features from many different weapons, to create the perfect rifle for the American soldier. Another important aspect included in Stoners' design was the simplicity of the M 16 rifle.

Stoner eliminated many moving parts, to make the rifle simple to operate and cheaper to manufacture. I don't know about those Army boys, but a Marine break a modern M-16 down, and put it back in their sleep. One of the most important features of the M-16 is it's accuracy, which is not compromised by continual disassembling of the rifle. When the Army began first tests in March 1958, the rifle was not fully developed yet. There were some problems with the rifle but Stoner fixed them within a short period of time. The only major problem that was not discovered yet was that the Army told its soldiers that the M-16 need not to be cleaned; again, what the hell were they thinking?

This would have been true if the Army had used the ammunition the M-16 was designed for, but instead the army used cheaper ball powder, which clogged up the barrel and lead to malfunctions of the rifle. When Stoner developed the 5.56 mm cartridge, he used a commercial gunpowder called Improved Military Rifle (IMR) powder. Stoner had used this 'extruded gain propellant' because it was cleaner-burning than the ball type specified by the Ordnance Corp. The previously used type tended to transmit powder residues that dirty the bolt as well as bolt carrier assembly, and in turn jam the rifle; it took the Army a little while to figure out why the hot lead things weren't coming out of the long end. This was quickly taken care of by issuing cleaning kits to the soldiers (now they just need to learn how to use them). Other problems remain to be unseen up to today. The M 16 was first issued to American Soldiers in Vietnam in 1968.

Since then, it has been adopted by a dozen of military and police forces through out the world. Operation Desert Storm was one of the more current situations were the M 16 has proven itself to be an excellent rifle. The military is discussing the adoption of a new rifle as their standard issue rifle. The M 4 A 1, a variant of the M 16 rifle has a shorter barrel and an adjustable butt stock.

The M 4 A 1 is not a newly designed weapon, rather a modification of the M 16 rifle. This would be similar to the AK-47, a popular foreign assault rifle. I, personally would be object to this decision, as the M-16 A 2 is deadly in its accuracy, which is conducive to a longer barrel, and a solid structure. Some would say that the American M-16 doesn't hold a candle to the foreign, large caliber, fully automatic assault rifles. The problem with those is that you can't hit the broad side of a barn after the second shot. Today's modern warfare tactics call for a rifle which is accurate, powerful, and mobile.

The M-16 A 2 is unmatched in accuracy, and with a trained shooter can be controlled with deadly skill.