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Author Topic: The M16 Rifle Went to War Against North Korea—And Succeeded. But In Vietnam, Not So Much.  (Read 609 times)

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rangerrebew

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The M16 Rifle Went to War Against North Korea—And Succeeded. But In Vietnam, Not So Much.
« on: October 01, 2018, 11:05:36 am »

October 1, 2018

The M16 Rifle Went to War Against North Korea—And Succeeded. But In Vietnam, Not So Much.

We breakdown some critical history.
by Kyle Mizokami

The M16 rifle is one of the most iconic weapons of the post-World War II era. American fighting men have carried the M16 in one form or another into combat for more than fifty years, from Vietnam to the present day. The story of the original M16, whose descendants the M16A4 and M4 carbine today fight in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State, goes all the way back to the 1950s and the institutional soul-searching that came after another war—Korea.

In the aftermath of the Korean War, the U.S. Army took stock of its small arms arsenal. The Army’s M1 carbine , M1 Garand rifle , Browning Automatic Rifle squad automatic weapon and machine guns were all some variation on .30 caliber. The Army needed a new rifle and carbine, ideally a single weapon, but the data suggested that the lighter, slower .30 caliber round of the M1 carbine was less useful than the .30 and .30-06 rounds used in other small arms.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/m16-rifle-went-war-against-north-korea%E2%80%94and-succeeded-vietnam-not-so-much-32252
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Offline jpsb

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Re: The M16 Rifle Went to War Against North Korea—And Succeeded. But In Vietnam, Not So Much.
« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2018, 11:49:47 am »
The M16 did not exist at the time of the Korean war. The title of this article is factually incorrect.
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Offline RetBobbyMI

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Re: The M16 Rifle Went to War Against North Korea—And Succeeded. But In Vietnam, Not So Much.
« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2018, 12:56:51 pm »
The ArmaLite Inc. AR-15 wasn’t introduced until the late 1950s. The M-16 militarized version was introduced in 1964 for jungle operations in Vietnam. It didn’t replace the standard M-14 until 1969.
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Offline Maj. Bill Martin

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Re: The M16 Rifle Went to War Against North Korea—And Succeeded. But In Vietnam, Not So Much.
« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2018, 04:28:22 pm »
Quote
The reports also suggested that a weapon that fired a slightly dispersed pattern of bullets—or projectiles—could compensate for near-misses on the battlefield.

And burn up ammo 3x faster.
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Offline Bigun

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Re: The M16 Rifle Went to War Against North Korea—And Succeeded. But In Vietnam, Not So Much.
« Reply #4 on: October 01, 2018, 04:35:51 pm »
Quote from: Maj. Bill Martin on October 01, 2018, 04:28:22 pm
And burn up ammo 3x faster.

And, and, and, ....

I went through basic training in 1966, trained on and drilled with M-14. In 1967, while I was in Vietnam, they took my M-14 away and gave me a damned plastic rifle!

BTW @rangerrebew: I'm pretty certain that the M1 rifle was still standard issue during the Korean War.

« Last Edit: October 01, 2018, 04:40:10 pm by Bigun »
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Offline Restored

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Re: The M16 Rifle Went to War Against North Korea—And Succeeded. But In Vietnam, Not So Much.
« Reply #5 on: October 01, 2018, 05:16:04 pm »
The only new infantry weapon for Korea was the 3.5" bazooka
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