M16 rifle

Looking at the modern gun race, it can be found that the decades long competition between the AK series of the former Soviet Union, the Colt M16 series of the United States, and their respective derivative members can be regarded as an undeniable scene in the development of firearms. These two classic guns are destined to become archenemies to each other, so many people describe them as the years long rivalry between the German BF109 and the British Spitfire fighter during World War II. Compared to the AK series known for its durability and reliability, the M16's reputation in this regard is inevitably inferior, to the point where there is a joke that American soldiers discovered too many problems with the M16 in the humid tropical jungles of Vietnam, cursing it as a plastic toy for killing, and often throwing away their guns and picking up the North Vietnamese Rangers' AK47 as a more reliable weapon.

After improvement, the M16 has become an excellent and reliable weapon.

However, if we truly understand the development and improvement of the M16 series rifle, we will find that the actual performance of this weapon has been greatly underestimated. The emergence of this type of gun began in the late 1950s. As early as 1957, the US military decided to replace the long serving Garand rifle with the new M14 rifle. In the second year, the prototype gun AR15 of M16 was born as a single soldier weapon for the Air Force Ground Guard. Two years later, it was ordered and then shipped in small quantities to Vietnam as a weapon for special forces and US military advisors. In 1963, according to frontline reports, the US Department of Defense decided to purchase an additional 100000 AR15 guns, which were given the XM16 designation. With the gradual intervention of US ground forces in Vietnam, the XM16E1 rifle, which was later officially designated as M16A1, received a large order of 800000 yuan in 1967. In the eyes of senior US military officials, in the early 1960s, a considerable portion of the US military did not even completely overhaul the M14, to the point where the Garland, which still used World War II technology, appeared very shabby, whether facing the Soviet army equipped with AK47 or the British army equipped with FNFAL series. It can be imagined that at this time, the difference in individual firepower among US soldiers, while thinking about the firepower advantage of US soldiers locked in by Garland during World War II, almost made the top management of the US military feel a world of difference.

In the early stages of the Vietnam War, many American soldiers used M14, which resulted in losses when facing AK47.

On the Vietnam battlefield, the nightmare of the US military came true. At that time, the M14's flying car was almost locked in semi-automatic mode, and the recoil of the 7.62mm bullet fired by the gun was too strong. Even if it was switched to full automatic mode, the accuracy could not be guaranteed. But if shooting in semi-automatic mode, the AK47 facing the opponent will suffer greatly in the dense jungle environment of Vietnam, and the accuracy and single shot power will naturally not be fully utilized. Some US soldiers are also equipped with Thompson, Gad submachine guns, BAR rapid automatic rifles, and carbines from World War II. These weapons are either too important or have insufficient bullet penetration, or it is difficult to ensure accuracy even at a small distance, which shows the advantages of the AK series. However, the AR15, which was previously invested in by the US military in small quantities, has received high praise. Many people think that the precision control of firearms is better and lighter when they are fully automatic or semi-automatic, and their 5.56mm small caliber ammunition can even cause more damage to the human body than the large caliber AK47 at normal combat distances. Eight soldiers armed with M16s even surpassed 11-12 soldiers armed with M14 in firepower, giving AR15, a second-line gun originally used for security forces, the opportunity to become a skilled actress. However, this does not mean that the future of this gun will be completely smooth sailing. At that time, the positioning of the M16 by the US military was still controversial. The senior management once planned to develop a lighter weapon that could fire various new types of ammunition, theoretically surpassing all rifles in countries such as the United States and the Soviet Union at that time. This weapon will be introduced in 1968, so the M16 can only be used as a transitional product rather than a standard weapon.

High quality US special forces can use their experience to ensure the reliability of weapons.

So the US military did not spend time testing and improving the M16, and even did not customize the supporting cleaning and maintenance equipment (earlier dealers also said that the gun had high reliability and did not require cleaning and maintenance). They temporarily replaced the single base gun propellant with a cheaper dual base ball propellant. But this caused a great disaster for the reliability of many early M16s, as its components were originally designed for single base propellants. When faced with new propellants, the working pressure would suddenly increase, and the overloaded operation of the components would lead to a sudden reduction in lifespan, resulting in problems such as poor shell extraction. The combustion residue of the new propellants increased, and the pollution level of the gun barrel also rapidly increased, ultimately accelerating shell jamming. Because these rifles do not require the necessary maintenance and cleaning tools like other weapons, many American soldiers disliked the early M16. A report points out that 90% of the problems with the gun are concentrated in misfires and shell extraction, and sometimes the shell gets stuck in the chamber and can only be poked out through a connecting rod or directly pried out of the chamber. Finally, in the 1966 report, frontline US military officers recommended airlifting 50000 sets of cleaning tools and 50000 sets of chamber brushes, and suggested that high-level personnel dispatch technical assistance and investigation teams. After improvement, the failure rate of the M16 series was significantly reduced, but frontline workers still recommended chrome plating on the gun barrel to reduce corrosion and dust removal. This improvement was finally achieved in 1967.

Many frontline special forces players have the same level of recognition for the M16 as they do for the AK.

From a human perspective, the failure of the M16 during its early service in Vietnam was also related to it. In earlier years, a large number of US soldiers were still using M14, and many people suddenly switched to M16 after arriving in Vietnam, which inevitably made them unfamiliar with the new weapon. However, the M16 itself is not only different from the M14 in terms of durability and reliability, but also lacks supporting maintenance tools, resulting in many US soldiers treating the M16 based on the experience of using and maintaining the M14 rifle, which inevitably leads to problems. In addition, in earlier years, the United States' small forces were mainly composed of special forces and advisors who were proficient in weapon principles. Their abilities are simply incomparable to most soldiers. Even without supporting tools, they can solve weapon reliability issues through experience and their own solutions. But the senior management of the US military ignored the difference between ordinary soldiers and special forces officers on the front line, and then used a one-sided view to quickly change the equipment of frontline troops. This kind of thinking of competing for speed and economy, combined with the understanding of using points to cover areas, led to the M16's notorious reputation in the early stages of service. However, with a series of improvements in place in 1967, such as strengthened parts, the arrival of maintenance tools, improvements in propellants and ammunition, and even updates and optimizations in local designs, this classic rifle demonstrated the excellent performance it deserved. A survey by the US Army showed that the failure rate of the gun could be reduced to less than 6 out of thousands of shots, while in another survey of over 2000 officers and soldiers, only 38 people were still dissatisfied. More people indicate that its performance is very reliable and effective.

The decades long confrontation between two classic rifles also shows that both sides have their own strengths and weaknesses.

At the same time, the US Marine Corps also conducted a full-scale investigation into the M16. Once they receive specialized maintenance training and cleaning materials, almost 90% of soldiers say that this weapon satisfies them very much and has fewer malfunctions. M16 is a reliable weapon, and they believe in sudden actions during jungle infiltration missions. Looking at the performance of the M16 rifle, there are indeed some jokes that are not fabricated. But these jokes are too exaggerated, only focusing on its early shortcomings and ignoring its performance after performance upgrades. Especially many researchers have automatically overlooked the advantages of easy control and high precision in the M16 series shooting. For a long time, the emotional tendency of many enthusiasts in China towards the two major series of weapons of the United States and the Soviet Union has undoubtedly indirectly contributed to many people's judgments on the performance of American and Soviet weapons (because in earlier years, the People's Liberation Army equipped a large number of Soviet made weapons, and many domestic weapons were deeply influenced by the style of Soviet made weapons), leading to the spread of some erroneous concepts. Similar cases also include the comparison between the Sukhoi series fighter jets and the US F14 and F15. With the Su-27 series giving the Chinese Air Force its first real exposure to more advanced fighter jets of the same period in the 1990s, some domestic media clearly exaggerated its actual performance, even saying that it could easily defeat all American fighter jets, including the F15, in combat. From the debate between M16 and AK47, what a rational and correct researcher needs to do is to set aside any emotional interference and comprehensively and meticulously analyze the advantages and disadvantages of different weapons.