At that time, only M3A 1 "oil gun" was officially equipped by the reconnaissance company of the Marine Corps, and M3A 1 was also used by members of the armored vehicle group. The Marine Corps Company thinks that these people should be provided with a carbine.
Initially, the M 16A2 carbine developed by Colt Company for the Marine Corps basically only applied the change of M 16A2 to the 653 carbine, that is, the heavy barrel with the winding distance of 1/7 was replaced by m 14.5 inches (368mm).
This M 16A2 carbine was designed in 1985. The model of Colt Company is 720, which is called XM4 in the military test plan. However, Congress rejected the XM4 procurement budget of the Marine Corps. Therefore, the army reconnaissance company had to replace the old M3A 1 submachine gun with the navy HKMP5-N submachine gun, while other US special forces began to use other M 16A2 carbines such as RO727 in 1988.
In April 1986, the US Army Test and Appraisal Command reopened the development and second-stage testing of XM4 carbine. After further testing and improvement, XM4 was formally finalized in March of 199 1 and named as "American 5.56mm North Atlantic Treaty Organization M4 carbine".
The most obvious difference between M4 and other M 16A2 carbines is that the barrel of M4 has a necking shape 25mm away from the front end of quasi-constellation, which was changed to hang M203 Grenade launcher in later experiments.
In order to mount the original M203 Grenade launcher, the barrel diameter of M 16A2 inside the wooden guard is the same as that of M 16A 1, but the wood guard of the carbine is short, and the thick barrel of M 16A2 is used outside the wooden guard, so Colt's engineers machined this neck in the middle of the barrel outside the wooden guard, so that M203 can be mounted. Fixed stock can also be installed and used, but it is not common in the US military.
M4 carbine also changed the telescopic stock with only two fixed positions into four fixed positions, and then changed it into six. In addition, although the photo gate of M4 is M 16A2, the track gauge can only be adjusted to 600 meters at most, instead of 800 meters of M 16A2. Because the lower casing is M 16A2, the shooting mode is semi-automatic triple shooting.
Because M4 and M 16A2 are very similar, in fact, 80% of their parts are interchangeable, so it was originally called M 16A2 carbine. M4 was first equipped with the 82nd Airborne Division, which was used to replace the M16A1A2 rifle, M3A 1 submachine gun and 9mm pistols used by some vehicle drivers. 1994 officially installed.
M4 carbine first participated in actual combat in the Gulf War of 199 1. Before the war broke out, the US military suddenly found that they lacked new rifles. Many troops were still using M/KOOC-0/6A/KOOC-0/,while M/KOOC-0/6A2 was/KOOC-0/986, and many troops had not finished changing their clothes. Due to the need to obtain a large number of M 16A2 and M4 as soon as possible, the U.S. Department of Defense approved the increase of suppliers of M4, and Maine's Viper Light Weapons Company won the procurement contract for supplying M4 carbines and supplied 4,000 M4 guns to the Army for use by the 82nd Airborne Division during the "Desert Shield" and "Desert Storm". It is said that General schwarzkopf's guards also used the serpent M4.
However, at that time, the US military had not obtained the production right of M4, and Colt threatened to sue the US government for transferring M4 process documents to other companies without permission. As a result, serpent only got this M4 government procurement contract.
After the M4 was equipped with troops, Colt designed a flat-top chassis, and replaced the fixed handle with picatinny rail, which was convenient for installing the modular aiming device. 1In August, 1994, this improvement was also accepted by the US military. The flat-topped M4 was officially named as "American 5.56mm North Atlantic Treaty Organization M4A 1 carbine", and the number in Colt Company was 927.
Because the special forces don't like the point-firing restriction device of M4 carbine, they use other M 16A2 carbine that can shoot automatically, so M4A 1 also adopts the lowercase of M 16A 1. However, in the test, it was found that the barrel of M4A 1 was easy to overheat. After a shooter hit six magazines continuously in a fully automatic way, the guard was too hot to contact directly.
Although M4A 1 is a carbine rather than a light machine gun, in order to solve this problem, Colt improved the wooden guard, changing the aluminum heat shield from the original single layer to double layer, so the diameter of the wooden guard was increased accordingly. This improvement was later applied to the newly produced M4 carbine, so the wood guard on the early M4/M4A 1 was the same as that on the previous M 16 carbine, while the wood guard on the later M4/M4A 1 was thicker.
M4 carbines are mostly equipped with crew members, crew members, certificates or officers. For example, members of the M 1 tank crew have been using four M3A 1 submachine guns as self-defense weapons for many years, but now they have changed to two M4 carbines and two M9 pistols.
Because the flat-top box is easy to install the sight, except for the A2 handle ordered earlier, all M4 purchased by the US military now adopt the flat-top box, and the supporting sight mainly includes TA 1 1 and TA3 1ACOG and M68CCO. At present, the M4 series of government standards include Colt 920 and Colt 92 1.
Colt 925 carbine with KACM4RAS guard was tested and confirmed as M4E2. However, it seems that this name has been abandoned because of confusion about whether it is necessary and necessary to change the name of the existing carbine after installing this guard. The M4 series with RAS installed is called modular weapon system in the US Army Field Manual.
Although M4A/KOOC-0/was developed for special forces, the Army announced in/KOOC-0/998 that it planned to replace M/KOOC-0/6A2 as a standard rifle with the RAS guard wood M4A/KOOC-0/in the regular forces, and the original M/KOOC-0/6A2 was handed over to the reserve forces and the Coast Guard.
Why does the army intend to replace the standard assault rifle with a carbine? The Army explained that M4A 1 is lighter than M 16A2, which is enough to effectively deal with targets within 200 meters. Another explanation is that M4A 1 can reduce the total weight of the land warrior system when it is equipped with troops.
However, there is actually another rumor that some senior generals in the army are still uneasy about FNMI winning the supply contract of M 16A2 by defeating Colt with price advantage in 1988, because FNMI is a company with foreign background. If the army decides to use different types of rifles, there is no reason not to continue to perform the procurement contract with FNMI.
The purchase of M4A 1 caused great controversy, and when Colt got the production contract of the Army, FNMI immediately suggested that they could also produce M4A 1 for the Army. The army rejected the proposal, so FNMI filed a lawsuit in the US federal court, claiming that it was unfair for the US government to appoint a sole contractor.
The federal court rejected FNMI's complaint under Colt movement, explaining that the technology of M4 series is unique to Colt, and according to the agreement reached between Colt and the military in1997 65438+February, the military could not grant other manufacturers the production right of M4 series or transfer the process documents before 201.
The peak of Army procurement of M 1 was around 2000. In 200 1 year, the U.S army finally decided to equip regular troops with las muwei, which seems to be the evidence of that rumor. The army still bought M 16A4 from Colt.
Because the muzzle velocity is low due to the short barrel, the muzzle noise is loud, and the wooden guard is more prone to heat than the long rifle, the Marine Corps repeatedly debated whether to adopt M4A 1 or keep M 16A2. Finally, in September, 2002, it was announced that M 16A4 with RAS wood protection would replace M 16A2, but it was produced by FN.
Many infantry fighting on foot in Afghanistan complained about the short range of M4A 1, which promoted the decision of the Marine Corps. However, in the urban war that invaded Iraq in 2003, those mechanized infantry who still used M 16A2 thought that they needed short and sharp light weapons like M4, because the fighting distance in cities was much closer than that in the mountainous areas of Afghanistan. Moreover, even when fighting in the suburbs, members of these mechanized units do not need to use light weapons in their hands to deal with targets 300 meters away, and most people who complain about the lack of range of M4A/KLOC-0 are light infantry who lack heavy weapons support.
Although the effective range of M4 series is not as far as that of M 16 series with long guns, many military analysts believe that infantry light weapons do not need to shoot targets of 300 meters in most cases, as long as they are effective within the range of 150 meters.
M4 series is loved by anti-terrorism forces and special forces because of its compact shape and powerful firepower suitable for CQB, and these advantages are also suitable for urban warfare. Therefore, M 16A4 is the main mode in the infantry class of conventional troops, with a small amount of M4A 1, while in the rapid reaction forces such as special forces and airborne troops, M4A 1 is the main battle weapon, and the US Special Operations Command has adopted M4A65438.
In recent years, Colt has also produced M4A 1 or modified kits with thickened inner cylinder. Although the weight of the whole barrel is slightly increased after thickening, it is more heat-resistant and more accurate when shooting automatically. These weapons with heavy barrels are also equipped with a slightly heavier new buffer called H2. The standard H buffer has a sliding counterweight, which consists of two pieces of steel and one piece of tungsten, while the new H2 buffer is changed to two pieces of tungsten and one piece of steel.
At present, these weapons are called colt 92 1HB (heavy barrel), but the modified HB adopted by the army has not been renamed, so the government M4A 1 includes 92 1 and 92 1HB.
Besides being equipped in the US military, the M4 series is also exported to other countries. Colt also provides four models, M4/M4A 1, RO777, 779, 977 and 979, to law enforcement agencies.
In addition to RO977, Colt also provided a long barrel of M4A 1 for law enforcement agencies, which was named "Law Enforcement Carbine" and the product number was LE6920.
There are two 20-round magazines with the gun. Of course, users can also buy magazines with other capacities. There are two types of LE6920: fixed handle box and flat top box, and the lower box has two shooting modes: three-beat and continuous shooting.
At present, Colt M4 is only used by the military and law enforcement agencies, and only under special circumstances can civilians be allowed to own the government M4/M4A 1. According to the definition of BATF, the barrel of 14.5 inch is classified as "short barrel rifle", which belongs to the third category of weapons, while the weapons capable of repeating bursts (including point-and-shoot mode) are classified as machine guns.
To purchase third-class weapons or machine gun weapons, you must apply to BATF and pay stamp duty, while civilian machine gun weapons can only be produced and sold before 1986, because federal law prohibits American manufacturers and distributors from selling machine gun weapons to the public from 1986 May.
The only exception is the special professional taxpayers, who are the distributors and manufacturers of the production, import and export of machine guns. There are also private security or military enterprises, such as security contractors. Only the earliest Colt M4 prototype produced before1May 1986 19 can be legally owned by non-SOT civilians.
Colt has always been dissatisfied with this situation, because he wants to maintain his exclusive right to the name and shape design of M4. Other manufacturers have long claimed that Colt exaggerated their rights-they said that "M4" has now become a term collectively called short M 16/AR- 15.
In April 2004, Colt filed a lawsuit against HK and Viper on the grounds of trademark infringement, trade infringement and trademark dilution, accusing them of deliberately abusing trade names, infringing Colt's patents, and taking unfair competition and deceptive trade.
HK's appeal was rejected by the court, so HK had to change the shape design of its piston short stroke HKM4 and rename it HK4 16. However, on February 8, 2005, 65438, a federal district court judge in Maine ruled in favor of the serpent (similar to FN, it seems that local protectionism is at work again). Because Colt's lawsuit against the serpent is equivalent to actually losing the "M4" trademark, the court simply revoked Colt's M4 trademark patent right.
Improved carbine
For a long time, many manufacturers who provide various sights, lights and other tactical accessories for carbine guns have not installed the sign of the interface. 1989 In September, the US Special Operations Command began to try to formulate a set of attachment interface standards for melee carbines, and in May, 1992, 15 formally put forward the name of the plan called "Special Operations Improvement". 1In May 1999, the navy and air force began to provide improved special operations with M4A 1 carbine as the weapon platform for testing.
1 The main contractor on behalf of M4 is Knight Ordnance Company. M4 is not just a carbine, but a modular assault rifle system based on M4A 1. The main modules include a RIS wooden guard with four sections of M 19 13 standard guide rails, a shortened quick-release M203 Grenade launcher and its sight, a quick-release muffler, a standby photo door, a tactical light, a visible/infrared laser indicator, a reflective sight and a night vision sight, but many soldiers have replaced the reflective sight with holographic sight.
At present, M4 has been equipped with many special forces, including SEALs. When M4 is equipped with some tactical accessories for melee, it will be called "indoor melee weapon M4", which is actually the same thing.
performance parameter
Diameter: 5.56×45mm；; ;
Full gun length: 840mm when the butt is unfolded;
Withdraw the stock: 760mm；;
Barrel length: 368mm；;
Rifle: 6, right hand, winding distance178 mm; ;
Empty gun weight: (excluding magazine) 2.68kg；;
30 Empty magazine weight: 0.11kg;
Weight of 30 rounds full magazine: 0.45kg；;
Theoretical firing rate: 700 ~ 950 rpm;
Effective range: 600 m;
Length of aiming baseline: 368mm；;
Initial speed: 884 m/s;
Muzzle kinetic energy: 1645 Joule.