The United States Army announced on April 19, 2022, that it hadย awardedย Sig Sauer a 10-year firm-fixed follow-on production contract to manufacture theย Next Generation Squad Weaponย variations, one of which โ the XM5 rifle โ would replace theย M4/M4A1 carbine. That will mark the official end of the line for the M16ย series, as the M4 was essentiallyย a shortenedย andย updated versionย of the military's assault rifle that first entered service in 1964.
The family of military rifles was adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15, and was first deployed for jungle warfare operations during the Vietnam War. In 1969, the improved M16A1 replaced the M14 to become the U.S. military's standard service rifle. It has gone on to become theย longestย continuously servingย rifle in U.S. military history.
Millions Served
A lot of M16s in various versions have been produced, and it has been widely adopted by militaries and paramilitary forces around the world.
With some eight million manufactured, it is the most-produced 5.56x45mm weapon in service today. The most recent version,ย the M16A4ย โ the fourth generation in the series โ was adopted in 1997. It was equipped with a removable carry handle, and it is fitted with a Picatinny rail for mounting optics and other ancillary devices.
The M16A4 is also notable in that it has no โfull-auto mode.โ After the Vietnam War, the U.S. military examined the use of its M16 assault rifles in combat. It was determined that firing on full-auto past three rounds largely resulted in a waste ofย ammunition. The full-auto firing mode was replaced with a three-round burst mode.
Missing the Target
Apart from shooting aficionados and firearms history buffs, few can actually name the inventor of the AR-15/M16. That would be Eugene Stoner (November 22, 1922 โ April 24, 1997), a United States Marine Corps veteran and engineerย who worked at ArmaLite, a division of Fairchild Engine & Airplane Corporation.ย He was no John Browning, and had more misses than hits initially when it came to firearms design.
While at ArmaLite, he designed a series of prototype small arms, including the AR-3, AR-9, AR-11, and AR-12, none of which saw significant production. In fact, his only really successful design had been theย AR-5 survival rifle, a bolt action takedown rifle that was chambered for the .22 Hornet cartridge.
With a hit under his belt, Stoner then turned his attention to work on the revolutionaryย ArmaLite AR-10, a select-fire infantry rifle that was chambered for the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge. It showed promise, but not enough at the time to interest the military. He was given a chance to refine it, and that resulted in theย AR-15ย โ a firearm that went on to define his career. Though Stoner didn't become famous from his creation, he reportedly became very rich from it, as he was paid $1 for every single M16 produced.
A Comic Book Trained the Troops
The weapon had quite the baptism of fire in Vietnam; M16s were prone to jamming, made worse by the fact that the firearm was wrongly touted at the time as being โself-cleaning.โ
As a result, the M-16 earned the nickname โJamming Jenny.โ
To encourage proper care of the M16, the U.S. military responded by issuing a comic book. It was written to explain the tools for cleaning the gun as well as the importance of regular maintenance in a way that differed from past manuals.
The 32-page pamphlet/comic,ย The M-16A1 Rifle: Operation and Preventative Maintenance, was written by noted cartoonist William Erwin Eisner, and it was a key departure from the traditional manuals that the War Department had issued for decades. Instead of relying mostly on the text and black and white photos, it featured colorful illustrations, and it also featured plenty of sexual innuendos including a buxom blonde who offers instructions with catchy subheads such as โHow To Strip Your Babyโ and โSweet-16.โ Reprints are nowย available on Amazon.com.
Featured in Time Magazine
The Soviets had kept tight wraps on the development of itsย AK-47ย following World War II, and the now-infamous firearm was never officially announced or introduced to the world.
The first time the AK-47 was even seen by western observers was during the 1956 Budapest Uprising โ while the AR-15 was rolled out to the world in the most American of ways.
In 1963, Arthur Rickerby of Coltย demonstrated the AR-15ย forย Timeย andย LIFEย magazines with 1962 Miss America pageant winner Maria Fletcher holding the weapon.
That introduction of the AR-15 has largely been forgotten simply because the timing of the publication of the article and photos was rather ominous.ย Timeย ran the article, titled โCorporations: Colt's New Rifle,โ in the issue dated November 22, 1963, the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
Interestingly it was also in Dallas where the Secret Service agents had been issued the AR-15 for the first time. That has led to the conspiracy theory that Secret Service agent George Hickey may have accidentally been theย infamous โsecond shooter.โ
Read this article in its entirety at 1945.
2 Comments
My first encounter with the M16A was in Basic Training, it acquired more sand than my boots. One of the Warrant Officers assigned to our platoon took one look down my rifle’s barrel and told me to clean it, you will have a disaster on your hands.
My brother was in Viet Nam, he told me that he never used fully auto, it wasted ammunition and was hard to hit after the first 5 left the barrel. He pined over the 2 barrel shotgun back home, it was a better weapon in the jungle.
The Atlantic magazine published, in 1981, the attached, well-written and documented article that all interested must read to get a clearer picture of the M16 introduction.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1981/06/m-16-a-bureaucratic-horror-story/545153/