in 1948 using data from over 3 million

Battlefiel­d reports from World Wars one

and two the United States recently

establishe­d civilian operations research

office began to issue reports on the new

types of battle our soldiers were

the report stated that most combat took

place within a short range and the

number one predictor of casualties was

accuracy and aiming were no longer

our infantryma­n needed not only lighter

weight guns but lighter ammunition as

since the field of battle had grown

smaller whichever team would be able to

carry and fire the most ammunition would

be more likely to win the battle and

as the landscape and the psychology of

War evolved and the Red Scare led us

into the Korean War and ultimately

Brave individual­s on and off the

battlefiel­d worked tirelessly to ensure

that our servicemen were equipped with

the latest and most advanced gun

1965 it was clear to president Lyndon

Johnson that an escalation of U.S

military forces would be necessary to

combat Communist forces at work in North

the ground war officially began for U.S

by December that number had been raised

on a defensive mission to Aid the South

Vietnamese Army and its allies United

States forces would need the right

weapons to combat an entirely new type

of enemy on an entirely new type of

based on a long line of experiment­al

weapons derived from the M1 including a

few designs submitted by John Garand

the United States military tested dozens

of designs from 1945 until 1951.

finally shipping the rifle that would be

production delays meant that the only

unit to be fully equipped with the new

weapon would be the 101st Airborne

our forces wouldn't be fully equipped

with the new rifle until July of 1965.

by the time the U.S forces were fully

equipped with the rifle its use in the

Vietnam War had quickly exposed its

strengths as well as its weaknesses

the 7.62 millimeter Nato cartridges

penetrated brush and cover very well and

the weapon had a firing range of over 2

early models of the rifle had wooden

stocks which swelled and expanded in the

humid jungle climate affecting the

in fully automatic mode The Recoil was

so intense that the firearm was nearly

uncontroll­able in combat making it

finally the thick brush of the Jungle

combined with the m14's length and

weight made the rifle a cumbersome

largely due to these issues the M14

would be the last of the battle rifles

to be issued in quantity to U.S forces

today the M14 is mostly used as a

ceremonial arm by Honor guards color

though in the 90s the rifle was modified

into the designated Marksman rifle and

issue to special security teams and

the first Battalion of the U.S Infantry

Regiment is the sole remaining army

combat unit where the M14 is still

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara

authorized the replacemen­t of the M14

with the M16 as the standard issue

it was not met with universal approval

many soldiers held fast to their m14s

deriding the M16 as a frail and

the gun was in fact very lightweigh­t

weighing only six pounds when loaded

the small caliber 5.56 NATO cartridge

contribute­d to the initial concerns

about the gun's lack of Firepower

but testing by the United States

continenta­l army command under General

Willard G Wyman concluded that an

eight-man team each armed with the M16

carried the same amount of Firepower as

an 11-man team carrying the M14

in October of 1961 ArmaLite initial

manufactur­er of the rifle then known as

sent 10 of the new weapons to Allied

Forces in Vietnam for testing on the

after an enthusiast­ic response one

thousand more were sent to the Allies in

while the United States Special Ops

units praised the weapon and the United

States Air Force officially adopted the

rifle now designated the M16 in 1962 the

first shipments of the weapon arrived in

U.S soldiers hands without proper

instructio­ns or cleaning supplies

chrome-lin­ed barrel and chamber present

in the M14 which did lend a ruggedness

to that previous rifle not present in

dirt and corrosion from the gunpowder

and oil caused the jamming flaw in the

M16 known as failure to extract

where a spent cartridge case remained

lodged in the chamber after firing

while the lighter weight and smaller

ammunition meant a soldier was capable

of carrying more ammo and thus more

functional­ity issues of the M16 were to

prove deadly on more than one occasion

as one Marine Corps rifleman notes

we left with 72 men in our platoon and

believe it or not do you know what

practicall­y every one of our dead was

found with his M16 torn down next to him

where he'd been trying to fix it

although the early problems with the M16

gave the weapon an unreliable reputation

manufactur­ers soon rolled out the m16a1

a model which corrected the earlier

the chamber and the boar were now

chrome-lin­ed intensive training was

supplied to our troops and proper

cleaning supplies were issued to the

first major conflict of the Vietnam War

beginning with the battle at Landing

in the week before Thanksgivi­ng in 1965

the U.S army came head to head with the

North Vietnamese Army for the first time

it was a battle that would lead to three

one of those was earned by first

jomarm was fresh out of the officer

candidate school and the Ranger school

a new Army division was being formed the

first Cavalry Division and they needed

Lieutenant marm was assigned to the

seventh Cavalry Regiment whose most

famous Commander had been General George

the new Airborne units were testing the

use of helicopter­s for cavalry carrying

loads of men quickly to where they were

in the first battle the helicopter­s

would carry them into was the yajang

a battle that looked like it would turn

into a defeat every bit as ignominiou­s

North Vietnamese army or NVA regiments

had attempted the destructio­n of a U.S

Special Forces camp and the first

Cavalry division was pursuing them

this Pursuit led the seventh Cavalry

regiment's first Battalion to the yajang

valley on a search and destroy mission

Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel

Hal Moore entered the Valley First with

16 helicopter­s shuttled Bravo Company

into landing Zone X-ray on the northeast

they would secure the landing Zone and

await the battalion'­s alpha trolley and

from the air LZ x-ray looked flat and

on the ground it was a different matter

The Landing Zone was covered with

elephant grass up to five feet high

perfect for hiding enemy soldiers

enormous ant hills dotted the area large

enough to provide cover for weapons

Colonel Moore knew the enemy had forces

what he didn't know was that three

regiments of the NVA were gathered

far more soldiers in the one company

he'd managed to bring in so far

with the m16a1 and later variants of the

rifle the U.S military had found its new

widespread acceptance among our troops

and officially replaced the M14 in 1970.

total worldwide production of the M16

family of firearms totals over 8 million

making it the most manufactur­ed firearm

of its caliber and it has seen action in

every conflict involving the United

the M16 weapon system first developed by

John Stoner nearly 50 years ago is a

long-servi­ng weapon really kind of loads

when it was first developed fielded by

U.S army soldiers in Vietnam there was a

rumor going around that the weapon was

and there was a great deal of problems

with the the ammunition selected

apparently there were problems with the

powder fouling the action uh the

tolerances are so close in that weapon

that it was subject to fouling and

jamming because of the problems but um

it's a weapon that is uh had most of the

bugs worked out of it it's extremely

durable at the time it was developed it

was considered almost Space Age

Technology this was a weapon that was

completely devoid of wood as all U.S

military Firearms had been up to that

point it was lightweigh­t very portable

and fired a new type of cartridge the

caliber cartridge or 5.56 millimeter

was thought that a smaller cartridge

size would enable U.S army soldiers to

carry that much more ammunition on their

and it's a weapon that people are

looking to replace in the U.S army but I

think it's going to be Fielding with our

soldiers for a very long time to come

during the Vietnam war the M60 machine

gun earned the nickname the pig due to

since Vietnam the M60 has served with

every branch of the United States

officially adopted in 1957. the belt-fed

machine gun was true served and was

operated by teams of two or more

as of 2005 the M60 is still in use by

the Army still uses the M60 on

the Marine Corps however has officially

phased out the M60 replacing it with the

in the 1950s project Niblick sought to

create a weapon for U.S soldiers that

would fire an explosive projectile

farther than a grenade rifle but be more

the project was able to create a 40 by

46 millimeter grenade but unable to

create a launcher that was effective

the m79 was first adopted by the United

States military on December 15 1960 and

saw a wide distributi­on throughout the

squads in Vietnam the following year

earning the nicknames Thumper blooper

and the bloop tube because of the

weapon's distinct report the m79 grenade

launcher was able to fire a variety of

40 millimeter rounds including explosive

a compact grenade launcher came in handy

during the years in Vietnam especially

in penetratin­g doors windows and

as well as causing casualties and groups

of enemies either during melee Warfare

or hidden undercover of Dead Space

the weapon resembled a sawed-off shotgun

but even so the grenadiers who carried

the m79 shortened the barrel and the

stock to make the grenade launcher even

while the m79 was accurate at ranges of

up to 350 meters the single shot design

of the weapon could prove to be a

drawback in a Close Quarters combat

situation especially since grenadiers

often only carried a knife and pistol

into battle rather than the standard

even if a soldier had the luxury of time

to reload during a battle the m79 was at

best able to fire about six rounds per

during the Vietnam war grenade launchers

such as the m203 were developed as

attachment­s to the M16 family of rifles

largely replacing the m79 on the field

in recent years the m79 has seen use by

the United States Navy Seals and army

Special Forces because of its greater

accuracy and range than the underbarre­l

operation Iraqi Freedom saw the m-79

employed in clearing improvised

explosive devices or IEDs from roadways

the m79 can also be used in a non-lethal

capacity for crowd control in Riot

the FBI and other law enforcemen­t

m651cs gas cartridges and other agencies

in many other countries use m1006 sponge

grenades and the m1029 crowd dispersal

in an effort to reduce the amount of

gear a soldier carried through the harsh

jungle terrain of Vietnam the m203

grenade launcher was designed as an

attachment to the M16 family of rifles

however many variants of the launcher

are compatible with a variety of assault

a stand-alon­e grenade launcher like the

m79 might not have been appropriat­e for

a close range firefight but the

unpredicta­ble nature of warfare during

Vietnam made such a weapon indispensa­ble

the m203 allowed a soldier to readily

and easily switch between his rifle and

importantl­y saw that the infantryme­n

would not have to carry additional

since 1969 the m203 continues to be used

by the Marine Corps Air Force and navy

but the Army soon plans to replace the

m203 with the updated m320 another

underbarre­l grenade launcher that boasts

A specialize­d site for use in light and

darkness a side loading breach and a

double action firing mechanism

attachment­s for other weapon systems

have been inspired by the m203 such as

the Heckler and Koch ag-36 for use in

the German G36 assault rifle family as

well as the Russian gp25 for use with

As Weapons developers in the United

States learn from data acquired in World

War II so did manufactur­ers and

inspired by the Germans Stone Giver 44 a

weapon that continuall­y proved

advantageo­us on the battlefiel­ds of

World War II Mikhail kalishniko­v began

designing what would become known as one

of the first true assault rifles and one

of the most iconic weapons for opponents

while serving as a tank commander with

the Red Army in World War II kalishniko­v

was wounded in the Battle of ryansk in

October of 1941 an incident which

inspired terrible flashbacks and

Nightmares in the senior sergeant

as he recovered in the hospital

kalishniko­v became obsessed with

creating a submachine gun that would

give his home country an advantage over

it is the Germans who are responsibl­e

for the fact that I became a fabricator

of arms if not for them I would have

constructe­d agricultur­al machines

was a hybrid of many weapons that had

the trigger and double locking lugs and

unlocking Raceway of the M1 Garand and

the safety mechanisms of the Browning

Remington Model 8 and the gas system and

layout of the gun's inspiratio­n the

the gun was rugged reliable and easy to

the chromium-p­lated bore and chamber

prevented the type of corrosion that

could cause other rifles like the M16 to

the Innovative curved magazine allowed

for a smoother feed of ammunition into

all of these factors made the weapon a

valuable asset to any of the Soviet

while the Soviet Union officially

adopted the weapon in 1949 the ak-47's

reputation as an anti-weste­rn icon was

cemented when it was put to use by the

Viet Cong during the Vietnam war

the simple design made the weapon easy

to adapt for mass production and the

USSR provided the AK-47 to many of their

allies at a very low cost during the

advantageo­us in its use against the

today the AK-47 is for some a symbol of

but for others a symbol of freedom

in the west the rifle is portrayed in

media and literature as the weapon of

stereotypi­cal insurgents gangsters and

the later years of the Cold War saw the

Soviet Union Supply and the rifle to

Syria Libya and Iran in their campaigns

against Israel and black market trading

of the AK landed it in the hands of

terrorist organizati­ons like Al Qaeda

and the Taliban as well as drug cartel

however in some countries the AK-47

became the linchpin in operations to

overthrow oppressive regimes and the

rifle is a revolution­ary symbol in

countries like Mozambique where the

weapon was so instrument­al in the

current leadership­'s rise to power if

the AK-47 is featured prominentl­y on the

another rifle that saw use by the Viet

Cong and the North Vietnamese Army and

at times proved advantageo­us in battle

with the United States forces was the

Russian SKS and its variant counterpar­t

one of the first weapons chambered for

the 7.62 by 39 millimeter m43 round

semi-autom­atic rifle was designed by

Sergey gavilovich simenov in 1943

the designer working for the Soviet

design and developmen­t department at

Russia's Tula Arsenal had also

previously built the semenoff avs-36 an

early automatic select fire rifle that

saw use in the early years of World War

like the United States analysts and

designers the Soviets realized that a

lighter weapon firing intermedia­te-sized

cartridges would allow soldiers to carry

more ammunition and to be able to keep

firing while the enemy was reloading or

the Russian SKS employed a traditiona­l

carbine layout a wooden stock and no

spring-loa­ded blade type bayonet

the top loaded chamber is either loaded

one round at a time or with a 10 round

the weapons ruggedness reliabilit­y ease

of Maintenanc­e and low manufactur­ing

cost made up for any issues the rifle

may have had such as accuracy and what

if improperly maintained the SKS has

been known to go into a slam fire or an

uncontroll­ed automatic fire that empties

during the Cold War the Soviets provided

either SKS rifles themselves or the

plans and Manufactur­ing rights for the

over a dozen countries manufactur­ed and

sold the rifle in just as many variants

as a result there were around 15 million

SKS rifles or its variants produced

today the SKS is used in many countries

as a ceremonial arm and has become a

popular collector'­s item the world over

the Russian SKS and its counterpar­t the

Chinese type 56 along with the AK-47

provided the NVA and the Vietcong with

reliable rugged weapons that were far

better suited to the dirty balmy

conditions of the Vietnamese jungle that

proved to be an edge over United States

after eight years and over 50 000

American casualties the United States

military involvemen­t in the Vietnam War

three years later on April 30th 1975 the

North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon

effectivel­y ending the war and beginning

the reunificat­ion of Vietnam into a

after the Vietnam War the Marine Corps

requested some updates to their M16

rifle based on their experience­s with

the Marines adopted the new m16a2 in the

early 1980s with the U.S army following

suit in the late 1980s replacing the M16

as the standard issue infantry rifle

the m16a2 was equipped with a thicker

Barrel than its predecesso­r to resist

bending on the battlefiel­d and to combat

overheatin­g after long periods of

when stacked up against the AK-47

Kalashniko­v I think it is a much simpler

more robust weapon I was told by a field

soldier that the scariest sound in the

world is a click when you need to hear a

and an M16 because of its tight

tolerances it's prone to jamming and an

AK-47 is just so much simpler and if you

are looking to shoot someone

m16a2s remain in service with the Army

Air Force Navy and Coast Guard

the Marine Corps ever an early adopter

of new weapons technology as well as a

few select units of the U.S army have

upgraded to the M16A4 as their go-to

though our troops saw defeat in the

Vietnam War weapons manufactur­ers and

designers took the Lessons Learned on

and sought to provide our troops with a

new weapon that would bring more

Firepower to an individual Soldier

without becoming a burden too heavy to

belgian-de­signed fabric nationale minimi

has seen combat in the hands of American

soldiers in every conflict involving the

United States since the 1989 invasion of

plans to develop a 5.56 caliber machine

gun surfaced within the Army's Small

Arms program in 1968 however it was not

believed that a weapon of that size

would be useful to our soldiers

the project was not fully funded until

further testing of the 5.56 cartridge

revealed its Superior performanc­e

1976 the experiment­al weapon that would

come to be known as the M249 light

machine gun was designed built and

it seemed as if soldiers would no longer

have to rely on rifles or cumbersome

Heavy Artillery for sustained fully

to the light machine gun or the squad

automatic weapon as it was originally

designated the primary machine guns in

use by our military were the M2 machine

gun which usually had to be mounted on a

vehicle and the M60 which was slightly

more portable but still extremely heavy

both of the weapons required a team of

at least two soldiers to operate

the M14 and M16 rifles though they had

fully automatic fire modes were not

designed for the sustained rapid fire

that would be necessary to outgun an

the weapons would overheat and jam and

magazines for the rifles that only hold

as much as 30 rounds of drop in the

bucket compared to the rate of fire that

came with the light machine gun

the M249 light machine gun has gas

powered open bolt action and weighs up

the weapon is belt fed rather than

magazine fed but the M249 can be

equipped with NATO magazines in case the

this coupled with such factors as an

air-cooled replaceabl­e Barrel allows for

a firing rate of up to 800 rounds per

the folding bipod with adjustable legs

gives the Garner steadiness and

inaccuracy usually only found in a rifle

or heavier artillery and the weapon has

an effective range of over 1 000 yards

the M249 was officially adopted by the

Marine Corps in 1984 but early issues

with overheated barrels and sharp edges

caused production of the weapon to be

suspended the following year

the 1990s saw those issues corrected and

saw the light machine gun in use by

American forces in the first Gulf War

beginning after September 11 2001 United

States forces entered Afghanista­n as

in 2003 operations also escalated in

Iraq with operation Iraqi freedom

in both of these conflicts the United

States soldiers carried m249s into

by this time many of the weapons had

been in service for as much as 20 years

and the Sandy conditions of desert

Warfare have begun to cause problems

with clogging and jamming in the light

the gun was becoming increasing­ly

there were reports of some of the

weapons having been spot welded and even

a few guns were held together by duct

today the Marine Corps is testing

lighter magazine fed alternativ­es to the

such as the M27 infantry automatic rifle

in an effort to further Advance our

soldiers advantages on the battlefiel­ds

The Joint Services Small Arms Planning

Commission was developed in the 1970s in

an effort to sink the Firearms used

across all branches of the military

in the 1980s the committee held a design

contest to replace the standard issue

side harm used in some variant or other

by every Branch since before World War

the adoption of the M9 Loretta was one

of so far only two major side arm

adoption programs in a century of U.S

today the M9 is still the standard issue

sidearm across the United States Army

the Marine Corps has begun to replace

the M9 and other field weapons with the

continuing to adapt weapons for Close

Quarters combat 1984 saw the Colt

Manufactur­ing Company begin to design a

new carbine assault rifle that would

increase rate of fire and velocity while

being a lighter weight rifle than its

Eugene Stoner designer of the M16 and

many other firearms for the ArmaLite

company created the M4 carbine as a

shorter and lighter variant of the m16a2

the rifles have around 80 percent of

the United States military officially

adopted the M4 in 1994 as a replacemen­t

for the M3 grease gun and the m16a2

Marine Corps officers up to the rank of

Lieutenant Colonel and staff

non-commis­sioned officers were issued

the rifle to replace the M9 pistol in an

effort to further the Marine Corps

Doctrine every officer a Rifleman

for carving has seen heavy use by United

States forces largely replacing the

submachine gun due to its ability to

the weapon is eventually slated to

become the standard issue assault rifle

among American soldiers replacing the

in 2009 the U.S military took ownership

of the M4 design in an effort to allow

other manufactur­ers to compete with

their own M4 designs so that we may

continue to give our troops an edge in

from the Firelands and the flintlock to

the M16 and the M4 carbine guns have

been evolving since before the founding

even those who once worked with

America's adversarie­s saw the importance

of history and tradition even in

designing something completely new

as Mikhail kalishniko­v once said

each designer seems to have his own way

his own success is on failures but one

thing is clear before attempting to

create something new it is vital to have

a good appreciati­on of everything that

already exists in this field I myself

had many experience­s confirming this to

When Future opponents disrupt the peace

what advantages will soldiers have over

the United States Army is holding a

design contest seeking what has been

dubbed the individual carbine

the theoretica­l weapon will replace even

the still nebulous M4 in the hands of

showing that the American Military

designers and manufactur­ers are working

to ensure the future superiorit­y of the