In the mid-1960s, the US Army announced that it would use the equipment M4/M4A 1. It is said that the reason is to reduce personal load when adopting the land warrior system in the future. However, another rumor is that the Land Warrior system will not be completed in the near future. In fact, some senior military personnel have been worried about buying M 16A2 from FNMI, a foreign company. Colt has the exclusive patent right of M4 series, so he decides to buy a new gun from Colt.
After the US Army announced the equipment M4/M4A 1, the US Marine Corps also announced the full equipment M4/M4A 1 to replace the original M 16A2. In the second half of 2002, after some arguments, General james jones, commander of the US Marine Corps, officially announced through the Marine Corps Times that after two years of testing and appraisal, the US Marine Corps finally decided to abandon the all-round replacement of M4 and equip M 16A4, and the equipment time will start at the end of the year. However, the Marine Corps does not intend to be fully equipped with M 16A4, and the mechanized troops will still use M4 as the main weapon.
The predecessor of M 16A4 is actually M 16A2E4, which was tested in 1994. However, at that time, M 16A2E4 was just a flat-top box type M 16A2, and its appearance was similar to Colt's commercial M 16A3(9 10). 1997, M 16A2E4 began to be equipped with XM5 RAS guide rail wood protection produced by KAC company. Subsequently, the M 16A2E4 equipped with RAS was officially finalized as M 16A4, and XM5 RAS was officially renamed as M5 RAS.
Although M4/M4A 1 is accurate enough in the range of infantry fighting, the Marine Corps decided to choose M 16A4 with a longer range. Why did the Marines choose a 20-inch barrel when they went back? Some reports from Afghanistan seem to explain the choice of the Marine Corps: SS 109/M885 bomb shows a lack of lethality on the battlefield in Afghanistan, especially when it is launched with M4 or C8 carbine. SS 109/M885 To achieve effective killing, the speed of the warhead when hitting the target must be above 732m/s, and the warhead will start to deflect after passing through a certain distance at this speed, which will cause great trauma. However, M4/M4A 1 has low muzzle velocity and unsatisfactory trauma effect, which leads some troops to use heavier commercial competition warheads to improve the terminal ballistic performance, and even some troops suggest using new bullets, which is mentioned in the selected chapters of the Investigation Report on the Use of Infantry Equipment by US Troops in Afghanistan.
However, the Marine Corps still uses M 16A2 as its main weapon. It was not until the Iraq war started in 2003 that 3 1 0,000 M 16A4 were urgently transported to Iraq. After the war, more M 16A4 was sent to Kuwait. However, because the troops had already left for the front, they stayed in Kuwait until the end of the head-on battle. Due to the shortage, it is mainly used as Sam rifle, and the Army's Third Infantry Division has already replaced all M 16A4. It seems that the army has realized that the 14 inch barrel cannot completely replace the 20 inch barrel. Interestingly, however, M 16A4 was provided by two suppliers, Colt for the Army and FNMI for the Marine Corps. It seems that the army decided not to order standard rifles from FNMI. In fact, in the initial experiment, only a very small amount of M 16A4 was ordered from Colt, and the initial bulk orders were all ordered from FNMI.
M 16A4 takes firearms as the module, and the fire control system is designed as the module. The sight adopts many new technologies, but the gun itself has not been greatly improved. The cabinet is flat-topped, with MIL-STD- 19 13 picatinny rail at the upper end, and aiming equipment or detachable handle can be installed. Like other M 16 series, the bolt machine has a Teflon lubrication coating to provide reliability. The heavy barrel is engraved with the applicable numbers formed by bullets and rifling. The M 16A4 of the US Army and Marine Corps all adopt M5 Ras wood guard boards made by KAC Company, which can be equipped with accessories such as straight handles, laser pens and tactical lights, and the wood guard boards are internally provided with aluminum heat insulation screens. A wiping tool can be installed behind the fixed bracket. Because the complete M 16A4 system is not only a gun, but also includes a bunch of optional accessories installed on Picatinny track, in the US Army Field Manual, M 16A4 is also called M 16A4 MWS, that is, modular weapon system.
The M 16 series changed three bursts back and forth, M 16A2 changed from bursts to bursts, M 16A3 changed to bursts, and now M 16A4 has changed to bursts. The single shot/point shot mechanism on M 16A4 is also the point shot ratchet mechanism of M 16A2.
The aiming equipment of M 16A4 includes AN/PEQ-5 laser pointer, M68 melee optical sight (CCO), holographic diffraction mirror (HDS) and AN/PVS- 14 night vision aiming system. It is said that Colt made a model with three firing modes, single shot, point shot and automatic shooting, based on M 16A4, which may appear under the name of M 16A5, but the original firing mechanism of M 16A4 series cannot have three firing modes at the same time, so it seems that M 16A5 must be changed.
M 16A4
Caliber 5.56×45mm? SS 109/M855
Total gun length 1000? Hmm? (39.37")
The barrel length is 5 10/0mm.
Six rifling lines, right-handed, winding distance178 mm.
Empty gun weight (with empty magazine) 3.77kg? (8.30 pounds. )
The theoretical combustion speed is 700~900 rpm.
Effective range is 600 meters
Initial speed 945? m/s？ (3 100FPS)
Muzzle kinetic energy 1765 J
Magazine capacity 20/30? Relational data system
The aiming baseline length is 50 1? millimetre