M-16 Rifle Case Study

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Found this while reading up on the M-16 development.

A fascinating read, on page 105, I was surprised to see a passage that "During the beginning of the Vietnam War, General Westmoreland sent a request to Robert McNamara asking that U.S. Army personnel be equipped with more M-16 Rifles. This was due that units already armed with M-16 in Vietnam were quite successful, while those armed with the M-14's were taking high casualties."

The report is very detailed about the M-16's development, and it is shocking to learn about the U.S. Army's obsessive obstructionism to its adoption.

Here is the link to the PDF.

http://pogoarchives.org/labyrinth/09/02.pdf
 
Very interesting read, but the tone just oozes bias. Everyone who gave any negative review of the AR15 or was a supporter of the M14 is depicted as a lying con artist. The account of the ball powder switch is spurious. Overall, most of the facts appear correct but this guy clearly was trying to settle some scores the way he named names.
 
"The Great Rifle Controversy: Search for the Ultimate Infantry Rifle from World War II to Vietnam and Beyond" by Edward Ezell, who was the National Firearms Collection curator at the National Museum of American History, administered by the Smithsonian Institution, is a very good read.

He is quite objective, focuses more on the manufacturing, testing, project and administrative processes pursued by the U.S. military. Neither the M14 cheerleaders nor the M16 pushers come off smelling like roses.
 
Fair to say they could have converted the Garands cheaply into something much the same as the M14, but chose to do it the expensive way with inexperienced contractors. And that the end result wasn't a huge improvement over the Garand. Less about infantry needs, more about lining contractor's pockets.
 
That is part of it. Another is that the supporters of the M14 and it's maker (Government owned Springfield Armory), touted that the design could be produced on existing M1 Rifle machinery, which was a LIE as it was spoken. There were also NO M14's manufactured prior to the last minute before the submission deadline, which was in direct violation of the requirements for submitting a design. Once this and the cost information eventually came to light and Congress found out, the Springfield Armory was ordered by Mcnamara to be closed down as part of Service wide "cost effectiveness" initiative.
 
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