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10,800 | In ancient Hebrew, Saturn is called "Shabbathai". Its angel is Cassiel. Its intelligence or beneficial spirit is 'Agȋȇl (), and its darker spirit (demon) is Zȃzȇl (). Zazel has been described as a great angel, invoked in Solomonic magic, who is "effective in love conjurations". In Ottoman Turkish, Urdu, and Malay, the ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,801 | Saturn's rings require at least a 15-mm-diameter telescope to resolve and thus were not known to exist until Christiaan Huygens saw them in 1655 and published about this in 1659. Galileo, with his primitive telescope in 1610, incorrectly thought of Saturn's appearing not quite round as two moons on Saturn's sides. It w... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,802 | No further discoveries of significance were made until 1789 when William Herschel discovered two further moons, Mimas and Enceladus. The irregularly shaped satellite Hyperion, which has a resonance with Titan, was discovered in 1848 by a British team. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,803 | In 1899 William Henry Pickering discovered Phoebe, a highly irregular satellite that does not rotate synchronously with Saturn as the larger moons do. Phoebe was the first such satellite found and it takes more than a year to orbit Saturn in a retrograde orbit. During the early 20th century, research on Titan led to th... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,804 | "Pioneer 11" made the first flyby of Saturn in September 1979, when it passed within 20,000 km of the planet's cloud tops. Images were taken of the planet and a few of its moons, although their resolution was too low to discern surface detail. The spacecraft also studied Saturn's rings, revealing the thin F-ring and th... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,805 | In November 1980, the "Voyager 1" probe visited the Saturn system. It sent back the first high-resolution images of the planet, its rings and satellites. Surface features of various moons were seen for the first time. "Voyager 1" performed a close flyby of Titan, increasing knowledge of the atmosphere of the moon. It p... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,806 | Almost a year later, in August 1981, "Voyager 2" continued the study of the Saturn system. More close-up images of Saturn's moons were acquired, as well as evidence of changes in the atmosphere and the rings. Unfortunately, during the flyby, the probe's turnable camera platform stuck for a couple of days and some plann... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,807 | The probes discovered and confirmed several new satellites orbiting near or within the planet's rings, as well as the small Maxwell Gap (a gap within the C Ring) and Keeler gap (a 42 km-wide gap in the A Ring). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,808 | The "Cassini–Huygens" space probe entered orbit around Saturn on 1 July 2004. In June 2004, it conducted a close flyby of Phoebe, sending back high-resolution images and data. "Cassini" flyby of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, captured radar images of large lakes and their coastlines with numerous islands and mountains. ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,809 | Starting in early 2005, scientists used "Cassini" to track lightning on Saturn. The power of the lightning is approximately 1,000 times that of lightning on Earth. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,810 | In 2006, NASA reported that "Cassini" had found evidence of liquid water reservoirs no more than tens of meters below the surface that erupt in geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus. These jets of icy particles are emitted into orbit around Saturn from vents in the moon's south polar region. Over 100 geysers have been ide... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,811 | "Cassini" photographs have revealed a previously undiscovered planetary ring, outside the brighter main rings of Saturn and inside the G and E rings. The source of this ring is hypothesized to be the crashing of a meteoroid off Janus and Epimetheus. In July 2006, images were returned of hydrocarbon lakes near Titan's n... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,812 | From 2004 to 2 November 2009, the probe discovered and confirmed eight new satellites. In April 2013 "Cassini" sent back images of a hurricane at the planet's north pole 20 times larger than those found on Earth, with winds faster than . On 15 September 2017, the "Cassini-Huygens" spacecraft performed the "Grand Finale... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,813 | The continued exploration of Saturn is still considered to be a viable option for NASA as part of their ongoing New Frontiers program of missions. NASA previously requested for plans to be put forward for a mission to Saturn that included the Saturn Atmospheric Entry Probe, and possible investigations into the habitabi... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,814 | Saturn is the most distant of the five planets easily visible to the naked eye from Earth, the other four being Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. (Uranus, and occasionally 4 Vesta, are visible to the naked eye in dark skies.) Saturn appears to the naked eye in the night sky as a bright, yellowish point of light. The me... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,815 | Saturn and its rings are best seen when the planet is at, or near, opposition, the configuration of a planet when it is at an elongation of 180°, and thus appears opposite the Sun in the sky. A Saturnian opposition occurs every year—approximately every 378 days—and results in the planet appearing at its brightest. Both... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,816 | From time to time, Saturn is occulted by the Moon (that is, the Moon covers up Saturn in the sky). As with all the planets in the Solar System, occultations of Saturn occur in "seasons". Saturnian occultations will take place monthly for about a 12-month period, followed by about a five-year period in which no such act... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44474 |
10,817 | The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-round magazine. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,818 | In 1964, the M16 entered US military service and the following year was deployed for jungle warfare operations during the Vietnam War. In 1969, the M16A1 replaced the M14 rifle to become the US military's standard service rifle. The M16A1 incorporated numerous modifications including a bolt-assist, chrome-plated bore, ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,819 | In 1983, the US Marine Corps adopted the M16A2 rifle and the US Army adopted it in 1986. The M16A2 fires the improved 5.56×45mm (M855/SS109) cartridge and has a newer adjustable rear sight, case deflector, heavy barrel, improved handguard, pistol grip and buttstock, as well as a semi-auto and three-round burst fire sel... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,820 | The M16 has also been widely adopted by other armed forces around the world. Total worldwide production of M16s is approximately 8 million, making it the most-produced firearm of its 5.56 mm caliber. The US military has largely replaced the M16 in frontline combat units with a shorter and lighter version, the M4 carbin... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,821 | In April 2022, the U.S. Army selected the SIG MCX SPEAR as the winner of the Next Generation Squad Weapon Program to replace the M16/M4. The rifle is designated XM5. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,822 | In 1928, a U.S. Army 'Caliber Board' conducted firing tests at Aberdeen Proving Ground and recommended transitioning to smaller caliber rounds, mentioning in particular caliber. Largely in deference to tradition, this recommendation was ignored and the Army referred to the caliber as "full sized" for the next 35 years.... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,823 | However, senior American commanders, having faced fanatical enemies and experienced major logistical problems during World War II and the Korean War, insisted that a single, powerful .30 caliber cartridge be developed, that could not only be used by the new automatic rifle, but by the new general-purpose machine gun (G... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,824 | The U.S. Army then began testing several rifles to replace the obsolete M1. Springfield Armory's T44E4 and heavier T44E5 were essentially updated versions of the M1 chambered for the new 7.62 mm round, while Fabrique Nationale submitted their FN FAL as the T48. ArmaLite entered the competition late, hurriedly submittin... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,825 | The first confrontations between the AK-47 and the M14 came in the early part of the Vietnam War. Battlefield reports indicated that the M14 was uncontrollable in full-auto and that soldiers could not carry enough ammunition to maintain fire superiority over the AK-47. And, while the M2 carbine offered a high rate of f... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,826 | As a result, the Army was forced to reconsider a 1957 request by General Willard G. Wyman, commander of the U.S. Continental Army Command (CONARC) to develop a .223-inch caliber (5.56 mm) select-fire rifle weighing when loaded with a 20-round magazine. The 5.56 mm round had to penetrate a standard U.S. helmet at 500 ya... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,827 | This request ultimately resulted in the development of a scaled-down version of the Armalite AR-10, named the ArmaLite AR-15. The AR-15 was first revealed by Eugene Stoner at Fort Benning in May 1957. The AR-15 used .22-caliber bullets, which destabilized when they hit a human body, as opposed to the .30 round, which t... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,828 | In 1958, the Army's Combat Developments Experimentation Command ran experiments with small squads in combat situations using the M14, AR-15, and another rifle designed by Winchester. The resulting study recommended adopting a lightweight rifle like the AR-15. In response, the Army declared that all rifles and machine g... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,829 | Throughout 1962 and 1963, the U.S. military extensively tested the AR-15. Positive evaluations emphasized its lightness, "lethality", and reliability. However, the Army Materiel Command criticized its inaccuracy at longer ranges and lack of penetrating power at higher ranges. In early 1963, the U.S. Special Forces aske... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,830 | In January 1963, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara concluded that the AR-15 was the superior weapon system and ordered a halt to M14 production. In late 1963, the Defense Department began mass procurement of rifles for the Air Force and special Army units. Secretary McNamara designated the Army as the procurer for t... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,831 | Despite its early failures the M16 proved to be a revolutionary design and stands as the longest continuously serving rifle in US military history. It has been adopted by many US allies and the 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge has become not only the NATO standard, but "the standard assault-rifle cartridge in much of the worl... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,832 | In July 1960, General Curtis LeMay was impressed by a demonstration of the ArmaLite AR-15. In the summer of 1961, General LeMay was promoted to U.S. Air Force chief of staff, and requested 80,000 AR-15s. However, General Maxwell D. Taylor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised President John F. Kennedy that ha... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,833 | The damage caused by the 5.56 mm bullet was originally believed to be caused by "tumbling" due to the slow 1 turn in rifling twist rate. However, any pointed lead core bullet will "tumble" after penetration in flesh, because the center of gravity is towards the rear of the bullet. The large wounds observed by soldiers ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,834 | However, despite overwhelming evidence that the AR-15 could bring more firepower to bear than the M14, the Army opposed the adoption of the new rifle. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara now had two conflicting views: the ARPA report favoring the AR-15 and the Army's position favoring the M14. Even President Kenn... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,835 | In January 1963, Secretary McNamara received reports that M14 production was insufficient to meet the needs of the armed forces and ordered a halt to M14 production. At the time, the AR-15 was the only rifle that could fulfill a requirement of a "universal" infantry weapon for issue to all services. McNamara ordered it... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,836 | After modifications (most notably, the charging handle was re-located from under the carrying handle like the AR-10, to the rear of the receiver), the new redesigned rifle was renamed the "Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16". Inexplicably, the modification to the new M16 did not include a chrome-plated barrel. Meanwhile, the ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,837 | In November 1963, McNamara approved the U.S. Army's order of 85,000 XM16E1s; and to appease General LeMay, the Air Force was granted an order for another 19,000 M16s. In March 1964, the M16 rifle went into production and the Army accepted delivery of the first batch of 2,129 rifles later that year, and an additional 57... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,838 | In 1964, the Army was informed that DuPont could not mass-produce the IMR 4475 stick powder to the specifications demanded by the M16. Therefore, Olin Mathieson Company provided a high-performance ball propellant. While the Olin WC 846 powder achieved the desired per second muzzle velocity, it produced much more foulin... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,839 | In March 1965, the Army began to issue the XM16E1 to infantry units. However, the rifle was initially delivered without adequate cleaning kits or instructions because advertising from Colt asserted that the M16's materials made the weapon require little maintenance, and was capable of self-cleaning. Furthermore, cleani... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,840 | In February 1967, the improved XM16E1 was standardized as the M16A1. The new rifle had a chrome-plated chamber and bore to eliminate corrosion and stuck cartridges, and other minor modifications. New cleaning kits, powder solvents, and lubricants were also issued. Intensive training programs in weapons cleaning were in... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,841 | In 1969, the M16A1 officially replaced the M14 rifle to become the U.S. military's standard service rifle. In 1970, the new WC 844 powder was introduced to reduce fouling. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,842 | During the early part of its service, the M16 had a reputation for poor reliability and a malfunction rate of two per 1000 rounds fired. The M16's action works by passing high-pressure propellant gasses tapped from the barrel down a tube and into the carrier group within the upper receiver, and is commonly referred to ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,843 | This design is much lighter and more compact than a gas-piston design. However, this design requires that combustion byproducts from the discharged cartridge be blown into the receiver as well. This accumulating carbon and vaporized metal build-up within the receiver and bolt-carrier negatively affects reliability and ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,844 | The original M16 fared poorly in the jungles of Vietnam and was infamous for reliability problems in the harsh environment. Max Hastings was very critical of the M16's general field issue in Vietnam just as grievous design flaws were becoming apparent. He further states that the Shooting Times experienced repeated malf... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,845 | When these issues were addressed and corrected by the M16A1, the reliability problems decreased greatly. According to a 1968 Department of Army report, the M16A1 rifle achieved widespread acceptance by U.S. troops in Vietnam. "Most men armed with the M16 in Vietnam rated this rifle's performance high, however, many men... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,846 | Another underlying cause of the M16’s jamming problem was identified by ordnance staff that discovered that Stoner and ammunition manufacturers had initially tested the AR 15 using DuPont IMR8208M extruded (stick) powder. Later ammunition manufacturers adopted the more readily available Olin Mathieson WC846 ball powder... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,847 | After the introduction of the M4 Carbine, it was found that the shorter barrel length of 14.5 inches also has a negative effect on reliability, as the gas port is located closer to the chamber than the gas port of the standard length M16 rifle: 7.5 inches instead of 13 inches. This affects the M4's timing and increases... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,848 | In December 2006, the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) released a report on U.S. small arms in combat. The CNA conducted surveys on 2,608 troops returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 12 months. Only troops who had fired their weapons at enemy targets were allowed to participate. 1,188 troops were a... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,849 | In early 2010, two journalists from "The New York Times" spent three months with soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan. While there, they questioned around 100 infantry troops about the reliability of their M16 rifles, as well as the M4 carbine. The troops did not report reliability problems with their rifles. While only... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,850 | The M16 is a lightweight, 5.56 mm, air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle, with a rotating bolt. The M16's receivers are made of 7075 aluminum alloy, its barrel, bolt, and bolt carrier of steel, and its handguards, pistol grip, and buttstock of plastics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,851 | The M16 internal piston action was derived from the original ArmaLite AR-10 and ArmaLite AR-15 actions. This internal piston action system designed by Eugene Stoner is commonly called a direct impingement system, but it does not use a conventional direct impingement system. In , the designer states: ″This invention is ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,852 | The M16A1 was especially lightweight at with a loaded 30-round magazine. This was significantly less than the M14 that it replaced at with a loaded 20-round magazine. It is also lighter when compared to the AKM's with a loaded 30-round magazine. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,853 | The M16A2 weighs loaded with a 30-round magazine, because of the adoption of a thicker barrel profile. The thicker barrel is more resistant to damage when handled roughly and is also slower to overheat during sustained fire. Unlike a traditional "bull" barrel that is thick its entire length, the M16A2's barrel is only ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,854 | Early model M16 barrels had a rifling twist of four grooves, right-hand twist, one turn in 14 inches (1:355.6 mm or 64 calibers) bore—as it was the same rifling as used by the .222 Remington sporting cartridge. After finding out that under unfavorable conditions, military bullets could yaw in flight at long ranges, the... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,855 | Using M193 ball and M196 tracer bullets with a one turn in 7 in (1:177.8 mm or 32 calibers) twist degrades accuracy and should only be used in emergency situations. NATO SS109 ball and L110 tracer bullets should only be used in emergency situations at ranges under with a one turn in 12 inches (1:304.8 mm or 54.8 calibe... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,856 | Weapons designed to adequately stabilize both the M193 or SS109 projectiles (like civilian market clones) usually have a six-groove, right-hand twist, one turn in 9 inches (1:228.6 mm or 41.1 calibers) or one turn in 8 inches (1:203.2 mm or 36.5 calibers) bore, although other and 1:7 inches twist rates are available as... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,857 | The M16 uses a "straight-line" recoil design, where the recoil spring is located in the stock directly behind the action, and serves the dual function of operating spring and recoil buffer. The stock being in line with the bore also reduces muzzle rise, especially during automatic fire. Because recoil does not signific... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,858 | Notes: Free recoil is calculated by using the rifle weight, bullet weight, muzzle velocity, and charge weight. It is that which would be measured if the rifle were fired suspended from strings, free to recoil. A rifle's perceived recoil is also dependent on many other factors which are not readily quantified. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,859 | The M16's most distinctive ergonomic feature is the carrying handle and rear sight assembly on top of the receiver. This is a by-product of the original AR-10 design, where the carrying handle contained a rear sight that could be set for specific range settings and also served to protect the charging handle. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,860 | The M16 carry handle also provided mounting groove interfaces and a hole at the bottom of the handle groove for mounting a Colt 3×20 telescopic sight featuring a Bullet Drop Compensation elevation adjustment knob for ranges from . This concurs with the pre-M16A2 maximum effective range of . The Colt 3×20 telescopic sig... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,861 | The M16 elevated iron sight line has a sight radius. As the M16 series rear sight, front sight and sighting in targets designs were modified over time and non-iron sight (optical) aiming devices and new service ammunition were introduced zeroing procedures changed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,862 | The standard pre-M16A2 "Daylight Sight System" uses an AR-15-style L-type flip, two aperture rear sight featuring two combat settings: short-range and long-range , marked 'L'. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,863 | The pre-M16A2 "Daylight Sight System" short-range and long-range zeros are with M193 ammunition. The rear sight features a windage drum that can be adjusted during zeroing with about 1 MOA increments. The front sight is a tapered round post of approximately diameter adjustable during zeroing in about 1 MOA increments. ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,864 | An alternative pre-M16A2 "Low Light Level Sight System", includes a front sight post with a weak light source provided by tritium radioluminescence in an embedded small glass vial and a two aperture rear sight consisting of a diameter aperture marked 'L' intended for normal use out to and a diameter large aperture for ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,865 | With the advent of the M16A2, a less simple fully adjustable rear sight was added, allowing the rear sight to be dialed in with an elevation wheel for specific range settings between in 100 m increments and to allow windage adjustments with a windage knob without the need of a cartridge or tool. The unmarked approximat... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,866 | The front sight post was widened to approximately diameter and became square and became adjustable during zeroing in about 1.2 MOA increments. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,867 | The M16A4 omitted the carrying handle and rear sight assembly on top of the receiver. Instead, it features a MIL-STD-1913 Picatinny railed flat-top upper receiver for mounting various optical sighting devices or a new detachable carrying handle and M16A2-style rear sight assembly. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,868 | The current U.S. Army and Air Force issue M4(A1) Carbine comes with the M68 Close Combat Optic and Back-up Iron Sight. The U.S. Marine Corps uses the 4×32 ACOG Rifle Combat Optic and the U.S. Navy uses the EOTech Holographic Weapon Sight. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,869 | The M16 rifle is considered to be very accurate for a service rifle. Its light recoil, high-velocity and flat trajectory allow shooters to take head shots out to 300 meters. Newer M16s use the newer M855 cartridge increasing their effective range to 600 meters. They are more accurate than their predecessors and are cap... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,870 | The 5.56×45 mm cartridge had several advantages over the 7.62×51 mm NATO round used in the M14 rifle. It enabled each soldier to carry more ammunition and was easier to control during automatic or burst fire. The 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge can also produce massive wounding effects when the bullet impacts at high speed a... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,871 | The original ammunition for the M16 was the 55-grain M193 cartridge. When fired from a barrel at ranges of up to , the thin-jacketed lead-cored round traveled fast enough (above ) that the force of striking a human body would cause the round to yaw (or tumble) and fragment into about a dozen pieces of various sizes thu... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,872 | With the development of the M16A2, the new 62-grain M855 cartridge was adopted in 1983. The heavier bullet had more energy and was made with a steel core to penetrate Soviet body armor. However, this caused less fragmentation on impact and reduced effects against targets without armor, both of which lessened kinetic en... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,873 | However, there have been repeated and consistent reports of the M855's inability to wound effectively (i.e., fragment) when fired from the short barreled M4 carbine (even at close ranges). The M4's 14.5-in. barrel length reduces muzzle velocity to about 2900 ft/s. This reduced wounding ability is one reason that, despi... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,874 | In 2003, the U.S. Army contended that the lack of lethality of the 5.56×45 mm was more a matter of perception than fact. With good shot placement to the head and chest, the target was usually defeated without issue. The majority of failures were the result of hitting the target in non-vital areas such as extremities. H... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,875 | The M16's magazine was meant to be a lightweight, disposable item. As such, it is made of pressed/stamped aluminum and was not designed to be durable. The M16 originally used a 20-round magazine which was later replaced by a bent 30-round design. As a result, the magazine follower tends to rock or tilt, causing malfunc... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,876 | Production of the 30-round magazine started late 1967 but did not fully replace the 20-round magazine until the mid-1970s. Standard USGI aluminum 30-round M16 magazines weigh empty and are long. The newer plastic magazines are about a half-inch longer. The newer steel magazines are about 0.5-inch longer and four ounces... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,877 | In 2009, the U.S. Military began fielding an "improved magazine" identified by a tan-colored follower. "The new follower incorporates an extended rear leg and modified bullet protrusion for improved round stacking and orientation. The self-leveling/anti-tilt follower minimizes jamming while a wider spring coil profile ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,878 | In July 2016, the U.S. Army introduced another improvement, the new Enhanced Performance Magazine, which it says will result in a 300% increase in reliability in the M4 Carbine. Developed by the United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center and the Army Research Laboratory in 2013, it is tan ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,879 | Most M16 rifles have a barrel threaded in 1⁄2-28" threads to incorporate the use of a muzzle device such as a flash suppressor or sound suppressor. The initial flash suppressor design had three tines or prongs and was designed to preserve the shooter's night vision by disrupting the flash. Unfortunately it was prone to... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,880 | The M16's Vortex Flash Hider weighs 3 ounces, is 2.25 inches long, and does not require a lock washer to attach to barrel. It was developed in 1984, and is one of the earliest privately designed muzzle devices. The U.S. military uses the Vortex Flash Hider on M4 carbines and M16 rifles. A version of the Vortex has been... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,881 | The threaded barrel allows sound suppressors with the same thread pattern to be installed directly to the barrel; however this can result in complications such as being unable to remove the suppressor from the barrel due to repeated firing on full auto or three-round burst. A number of suppressor manufacturers have des... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,882 | All current M16 type rifles can mount under-barrel 40 mm grenade-launchers, such as the M203 and M320. Both use the same 40×46mm LV grenades as the older, stand-alone M79 grenade launcher. The M16 can also mount under-barrel 12 gauge shotguns such as KAC Masterkey or the M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,883 | The M234 Riot Control Launcher is an M16-series rifle attachment firing an M755 blank round. The M234 mounts on the muzzle, bayonet lug, and front sight post of the M16. It fires either the M734 64 mm Kinetic Riot Control or the M742 64 mm CSI Riot Control Ring Airfoil Projectiles. The latter produces a 4 to 5-foot tea... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,884 | The M16 is 44.25 inches (1124 mm) long with an M7 bayonet attached. The M7 bayonet is based on earlier designs such as the M4, M5, & M6 bayonets, all of which are direct descendants of the M3 Fighting Knife and have spear-point blade with a half sharpened secondary edge. The newer M9 bayonet has a clip-point blade with... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,885 | For use as an ad-hoc automatic rifle, the M16 and M16A1 could be equipped with the XM3 bipod, later standardized as the "Bipod, M3" (1966) and "Rifle Bipod M3" (1983). Weighing only 0.6 lb, the simple and non-adjustable bipod clamps to the barrel of the rifle to allow for supported fire. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,886 | The M3 bipod continues to be referenced in at least one official manual as late as 1985, where it is stated that one of the most stable firing positions is "the prone biped [sic] supported for automatic fire." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,887 | In March 1970, the U.S. recommended that all NATO forces adopt the 5.56×45 mm cartridge. This shift represented a change in the philosophy of the military's long-held position about caliber size. By the mid 1970s, other armies were looking at M16-style weapons. A NATO standardization effort soon started and tests of va... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,888 | In October 1980, shortly after NATO accepted the 5.56×45 mm NATO rifle cartridge. Draft Standardization Agreement 4179 (STANAG 4179) was proposed to allow NATO members to easily share rifle ammunition and magazines down to the individual soldier level. The magazine chosen to become the "STANAG magazine" was originally ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,889 | All current M16 type rifles are designed to fire STANAG 22 mm rifle grenades from their integral flash hiders without the use of an adapter. These 22 mm grenade types range from anti-tank rounds to simple finned tubes with a fragmentation hand grenade attached to the end. They come in the "standard" type which are prop... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,890 | The NATO Accessory Rail STANAG 4694, or Picatinny rail STANAG 2324, or a "Tactical Rail" is a bracket used on M16 type rifles to provide a standardized mounting platform. The rail comprises a series of ridges with a T-shaped cross-section interspersed with flat "spacing slots". Scopes are mounted either by sliding them... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,891 | This was the first M16 variant adopted operationally, originally by the U.S. Air Force. It was equipped with triangular handguards, buttstocks without a compartment for the storage of a cleaning kit, a three-pronged "duckbill" flash suppressor designed to preserve the shooter's night vision by disrupting the flash, ful... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,892 | The barrel rifling had a 1:12 (305 mm) twist rate to adequately stabilize M193 ball and M196 tracer ammunition. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,893 | The Air Force continued to operate these weapons until around 2001, at which time the Air Force converted all of its M16s to the M16A2 configuration. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,894 | The U.S. Army XM16E1 was essentially the same weapon as the M16 with the addition of a forward assist and corresponding notches in the bolt carrier. The M16A1 was the finalized production model in 1967 and was produced until 1982. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,895 | To address issues raised by the XM16E1's testing cycle, a closed, birdcage symmetric flash suppressor with open side slots to the top, bottom, left and right replaced the XM16E1's three-pronged flash suppressor which caught on twigs and leaves from 1967 onwards. Various other changes were made after numerous problems i... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,896 | With these and other changes, the malfunction rate slowly declined and new soldiers were generally unfamiliar with early problems. A rib was built into the side of the receiver on the XM16E1 to help prevent accidentally pressing the magazine release button while closing the ejection port cover. This rib was later exten... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,897 | The development of the M16A2 rifle was originally requested by the United States Marine Corps in 1979 as a result of combat experience in Vietnam with the M16A1. It was officially adopted by the Department of Defense as the "Rifle, 5.56 mm, M16A2" in 1983. The Marines were the first branch of the U.S. Armed Forces to a... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,898 | Modifications to the M16A2 were extensive. In addition to the then new STANAG 4172 5.56×45mm NATO chambering and its accompanying rifling, the barrel was made with a greater thickness in front of the front sight post, to resist bending in the field and to allow a longer period of sustained fire without overheating. The... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
10,899 | The barrel rifling was revised to a faster 1:7 (178 mm) twist rate to adequately stabilize the new 5.56×45 mm NATO SS109/M855 ball and L110/M856 tracer ammunition. The heavier longer SS109/M855 bullet reduced muzzle velocity from , to about . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
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