The M-16

[Asher]

I've heard from some people that the M-16 isn't the greatest weapon in the world, and I am somewhat surprised to hear that it's still very widely used in today's troops in Iraq.

Can any of you military people explain to me why the M-16 is still in use, why is it good/bad, and what alternatives are there?

[Kontiki]

The M-16 is one of the older assault rifles in use, but there have been several upgrade programs on it over the years, so it's still a top-notch weapon. There may be slightly better rifles available, but not dramatically so. The US military (don't know which branch, or if it was a DoD thing) did explore other options but wanted a rifle that could achieve a 100% (IIRC) improvement in accuracy. The "contenders" failed to achieve this benchmark, so they didn't go ahead with it.

As for alternatives, there are so many, it would be impossible to mention here. A great site is http://world.guns.ru/ Check out the assault rifles section.

[MichaeltheGreat]

The M4 carbine variant is probably in equally wide use, or pretty close. The reason the M16 is still in use is because it's cheap, it's fairly lightweight, Colt and other contractors have good lobbyists, and we spend more time on pie in the sky toys than basics. Nobody wants a better rifle, at least nobody in the procurement business - they want phasers if they're going to replace the M-16.

As for better replacements, the Swiss FASS 90 (SG 550 by Sig Sauer), the Austrian Steyr AUG, or the Israeli IMI Tavor series all kick ass over the M-16, although all require a bit more maintenance in the field.

[Asher]

Steyr AUG was my weapon-of-choice back when I played Counter-Strike. Very accurate and powerful.

[Zopperoni]

Re: The M-16

Originally posted by Asher
and what alternatives are there?

AK-47

[Promethus]

Asher

Look Here http://mwilson.hypermart.net/views/guns/m16.html

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
they want phasers

Wouldn't you?

[MichaeltheGreat]

Well, yeah, but not if I couldn't have anything better than the M16A2 until I got them.

[DinoDoc]

Ok. I'll make an on topic post now. How would you rate the potential of the OICW at replacing the M-16?

[Alinestra Covelia]

And does the FNP90 count as a contender or is cross-calibre comparison not allowed?

[MichaeltheGreat]

None. The ****ing thing is too heavy, and requires too much maintenance. It will likely be adopted for specialist use, like you may break down a squad to have a SAW man as a fire team leader, and an OICW man as a fire team leader, but I don't see it being more than a one weapon per squad sort of thing, with the exception that it would be available as needed for SOF use.

Alinestra - cross caliber comparison is always valid from a ballistic standpoint, but not very valid from a possibility of procurement standpoint. 5.56 mm is too entrenched in US and NATO use to readily go away, especially with the M249 SAW replacing the M60 as the common heavy weapon for infantry squads. A big selling point of the SAW was commonality of caliber.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by DinoDoc

Wouldn't you?

ever read any Gordon Dickson?

Jon Mller

[Gatekeeper]

MtG:

Seriously: Are the eggheads even close to developing some sort of hand-held energy/beam-based weapon to either complement or replace projectile weapons such as the M-16? You'd think they'd be able to start miniaturizing some of these lasers (and powering them up) that they 've had since, what?, the 1960s.

Gatekeeper

[KrazyHorse]

You can make a portable laser that'll output a couple of watts in a tight beam (I've used em). Enough to burn a hole through someone's body...

Three problems:

a) What's your power source?
b) Why? A bullet's as (or more) destructive.
c) I'd be cautious about using it extensively for more than a couple of minutes. Without a hell of a big heat sink the surface will be melting in a bit.

Anything stronger than that (say a portable tank-killer) is more problematic. You're talking industrial laser cutters at that point. Which aren't portable and which chew up a hell of a lot of energy on the input side.

[KrazyHorse]

Oh, and the laser will **** up more often than a projectile weapon.

Smudge the lens and see what happens...