The Evolution of Firearms – Episode 7: Post-WWII to Today – M14 to M4

In 1948, using data from over three million battlefield reports from World Wars I and II, the United States recently established Civilian Operations Research Office began to issue reports on the new types of battle our soldiers were experiencing. The reports stated that most combat took place within a short range and the number one predictor of casualties was the total number of rounds fired. Accuracy and aiming were no longer important in a field weapon. Our infantrymen needed not only lighter weight guns, but lighter ammunition as well. 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 possibly the war. As the landscape and the psychology of war evolved and the Red Scare led us into the Korean War and ultimately Vietnam, brave individuals on and off the battlefield worked tirelessly to ensure that our servicemen were equipped with the latest and most advanced gun. In 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 Vietnam. The ground war officially began for U.S. forces when 3,500 Marines were dispatched on March 8th. By December, that number had been raised to over 200,000. 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 battlefield. Based on a long line of experimental weapons derived from the M1, including a few designs submitted by John Garand himself, the United States military tested dozens of designs from 1945 until 1951, finally shipping the rifle that would be designated the M14 in July of 1959. However, production delays meant that the only unit to be fully equipped with the new weapon would be the 101st Airborne Division by the end of 1961. 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 2,000 feet of muzzle energy. On the other hand, early models of the rifle had wooden stocks which swelled and expanded in the humid jungle climate, affecting the accuracy of the rifle. In fully automatic mode, the recoil was so intense that the firearm was nearly uncontrollable in combat, making it impossible to aim. Finally, the thick brush of the jungle combined with the M14's length and weight made the rifle a cumbersome burden upon the infantrymen. 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 guards, and drill teams, though in the 90s the rifle was modified into the designated marksman rifle and issued to special security teams and snipers. The 1st Battalion of the U.S. Infantry Regiment is the sole remaining army combat unit where the M14 is still standard issue. In 1966, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara authorized the replacement of the M14 with the M16 as the standard issue service rifle. It was not met with universal approval. Many soldiers held fast to their M14s, deriding the M16 as a frail and underpowered Mattel toy. The gun was in fact very lightweight, weighing only six pounds when loaded with 20 rounds. 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 the AR-15, sent 10 of the new weapons to Allied forces in Vietnam for testing on the actual battlefields. After an enthusiastic response, 1,000 more were sent to the Allies in the next year. 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. Early models also lacked the chrome-lined barrel and chamber present in the M14, which did lend a ruggedness to that previous rifle not present in the M16. Dirt and corrosion from the gunpowder and oil caused a jamming flaw in the M16 known as failure to extract, where a spent cartridge case remained lodged in the chamber after firing, preventing further fire. While the lighter weight and smaller ammunition meant a soldier was capable of carrying more ammo and thus more firepower, the durability and 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 came back with 19. Believe it or not, do you know what killed most of us? Our own rifle. 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, one that persists to this day, manufacturers soon rolled out the M16A1, a model which corrected the earlier version's deadly flaws. The chamber and the bore were now chrome-lined, intensive training was supplied to our troops and proper cleaning supplies were issued to the soldiers with the weapons. The first major conflict of the Vietnam War was the Battle of Yau Trang, beginning with the battle at Landing Zone X-Ray. 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 separate Medals of Honor. One of those was earned by First Lieutenant Walter Joseph Marm. Joe Marm was fresh out of the Officer Candidate School and the Ranger School when he was given new orders. A new army division was being formed, the 1st Cavalry Division, and they needed officers. Lieutenant Marm was assigned to the 7th Cavalry Regiment, whose most famous commander had been General George Armstrong Custer. The new airborne units were testing the use of helicopters for cavalry, carrying loads of men quickly to where they were needed in battle. And the first battle the helicopters would carry them into was the Yau Trang, a battle that looked like it would turn into a defeat every bit as ignominious as Custer's. North Vietnamese Army, or NVA regiments, had attempted the destruction of a U.S. Special Forces camp, and the 1st Cavalry Division was pursuing them. On November 14, 1965, this pursuit led the 7th Cavalry Regiment's 1st Battalion to the Yau Trang Valley on a search and destroy mission. Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore entered the valley first with members of his Bravo Company. Sixteen helicopters shuttled Bravo Company into landing zone X-ray on the northeast side of Chu Pong Mountain. They would secure the landing zone and await the battalion's Alpha, Charlie, and Delta companies. From the air, LZ X-ray looked flat and open. 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 anthills dotted the area, large enough to provide cover for weapons units. Colonel Moore knew the enemy had forces in this area. What he didn't know was that three regiments of the NVA were gathered nearby. Far more soldiers than 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 standard-issue combat weapon. By 1968, the M16A1 had achieved widespread acceptance among our troops and officially replaced the M14 in 1970. Total worldwide production of the M16 family of firearms totals over eight million, making it the most manufactured firearm of its caliber, and it has seen action in every conflict involving the United States since the Vietnam War. The M16 weapon system, first developed by John Stoner nearly 50 years ago, is a long-serving weapon. Really kind of loathed when it was first developed, fielded by U.S. Army soldiers in Vietnam. There was a rumor going around that the weapon was self-cleaning and there was a great deal of problems with the ammunition selected. Apparently there were problems with the powder fouling the action. The tolerances are so close in that weapon that it was subject to fouling and jamming because of the problems. But it's a weapon that has 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 .223 caliber cartridge or 5.56 millimeter. It was thought that a smaller cartridge size would enable U.S. Army soldiers to carry that much more ammunition on their person. 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 the sheer bulk of the weapon. Since Vietnam, the M60 has served with every branch of the United States military. Officially adopted in 1957, the belt-fed machine gun was crew-served and was operated by teams of two or more soldiers. As of 2005, the M60 is still in use by the Coast Guard and the Navy. The Army still uses the M60 on helicopters as a door gun. The Marine Corps, however, has officially phased out the M60, replacing it with the upgraded M240 in the 1980s. 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 portable than a mortar. The project was able to create a 40 by 46 millimeter grenade, but unable to create a launcher that was effective with more than a single shot. The M79 was first adopted by the United States military on December 15, 1960, and saw 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, smoke, and illumination rounds. A compact grenade launcher came in handy during the years in Vietnam, especially in penetrating doors, windows, and soft-skinned vehicles, as well as causing casualties in groups of enemies either during melee warfare or hidden under cover 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 more compact. 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 issue infantry rifle. 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 minute. 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 of battle. 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 attachment versions. Operation Iraqi Freedom saw the M79 employed in clearing improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, from roadways and battlefields. The M79 can also be used in a non-lethal capacity for crowd control in riot situations. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies use the M79 to fire M651CS gas cartridges, and other agencies in many other countries use M1006 sponge grenades and the M1029 crowd dispersal rounds. 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 rifles. A standalone 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 the grenade launcher, and most importantly, saw that the infantrymen would not have to carry additional artillery. In service since 1969, the M203 continues to be used by the but the Army soon plans to replace the M203 with the updated M320, another underbarrel grenade launcher that boasts a specialized sight 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 & Koch AG-36 for use in the German G36 assault rifle family, as well as the Russian GP-25 for use with the AK-47 and its variants. As weapons developers in the United States learned from data acquired in World War II, so did manufacturers and designers in the Soviet Union. Inspired by the Germans Sturmgewehr 44, a weapon that continually proved advantageous on the battlefields of World War II, Mikhail Kalashnikov began designing what would become known as one of the first true assault rifles, and one of the most iconic weapons for opponents of the West. While serving as a tank commander with the Red Army in World War II, Kalashnikov was wounded in the Battle of Bryansk in October of 1941, an incident which inspired terrible flashbacks and nightmares in the senior sergeant. As he recovered in the hospital, Kalashnikov became obsessed with creating a submachine gun that would give his home country an advantage over its enemies. 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. The AK-47 was a hybrid of many weapons that had come before it. The trigger and double-locking lugs, and unlocking raceway of the M1 Garand and the M1 Carbine, the safety mechanisms of the Browning Remington Model 8, and the gas system and layout of the gun's inspiration, the Sturmgewehr 44. The gun was rugged, reliable, and easy to clean and maintain. The chromium-plated bore and chamber prevented the type of corrosion that could cause other rifles, like the M16, to malfunction and jam. The innovative curved magazine allowed for a smoother feed of ammunition into the chamber. All of these factors made the weapon a valuable asset to any of the Soviet Union's allies. 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 Cold War. The AK-47 would prove highly advantageous in its use against the United States forces. Today, the AK-47 is, for some, a symbol of evil, 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 terrorists. The later years of the Cold War saw the Soviet Union supplying 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 enforcers at work in Mexico. 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 that the AK-47 is featured prominently on the country's flag. Another rifle that saw use by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, and at times proved advantageous in battle with United States forces, was the Russian SKS and its variant counterpart, the Chinese Type 56 rifle. One of the first weapons chambered for the 7.62 by 39 millimeter M43 round, later used by the AK-47, the semi-automatic rifle was designed by Sergei Gavrilovich Semenov in 1943. The designer, working for the Soviet Design and Development Department at Russia's Tula Arsenal, had also previously built the Semenov AVS-36, an early automatic select fire rifle that saw use in the early years of World War II, up until 1940. 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 running out of artillery. The Russian SKS employed a traditional carbine layout, a wooden stock, and no pistol grip. The rifle is equipped with a spring-loaded blade-type bayonet. The top-loaded chamber is either loaded one round at a time or with a 10-round stripper clip. The weapon's ruggedness, reliability, ease of maintenance, and low manufacturing cost made up for any issues the rifle may have had, such as accuracy and what are known as slam fires. If improperly maintained, the SKS has been known to go into a slam fire, or an uncontrolled automatic fire that empties the magazine. During the Cold War, the Soviets provided either SKS rifles themselves or the plans and manufacturing rights for the rifle to many of its allies. 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, even in the United States. The Russian SKS and its counterpart, the Chinese Type 56, along with the AK-47, provided the NVA and the Viet Cong 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 forces. After eight years and over 50,000 American casualties, the United States military involvement in the Vietnam War ended on August 15th, 1973. 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 communist republic once again. After the Vietnam War, the Marine Corps requested some updates to their M16 rifle based on their experiences with the gun during the war. 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 sustained fire. When stacked up against the AK-47, I personally would prefer the 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 bang. 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, go with reliability every time, all the time. Today, 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 infantry assault rifle. Though our troops saw defeat in the Vietnam War, weapons manufacturers and designers took the lessons learned on the battlefield 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 carry. An American variant of the Belgian-designed Fabrique Nationale Minimine, the M249 light machine gun, has seen combat in the hands of American soldiers in every conflict involving the United States since the 1989 invasion of Panama. 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. In 1976, the experimental weapon that would come to be known as the M249 light machine gun was designed, built, and tested. It seemed as if soldiers would no longer have to rely on rifles or cumbersome heavy artillery for sustained fully automatic fire. Prior 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 efficiently. 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 enemy combatant. The weapons would overheat and jam, and magazines for the rifles could only hold as much as 30 rounds, a 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 to 22 pounds fully loaded. The weapon is belt fed rather than magazine fed, but the M249 can be equipped with NATO magazines in case the gun runs out of belted ammo. This, coupled with such factors as an air cooled replaceable barrel, allows for a firing rate of up to 800 rounds per minute. The folding bipod with adjustable legs gives the gun a steadiness and an accuracy 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, Somalia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Beginning after September 11, 2001, United States forces entered Afghanistan as part of the War on Terror. In 2003, operations also escalated in Iraq with Operation Iraqi Freedom. In both of these conflicts, United States soldiers carried M249s into battle. By this time, many of the weapons had been in service for as much as 20 years, and the sandy conditions of desert warfare had begun to cause problems with clogging and jamming in the light machine gun. The gun was becoming increasingly unreliable in combat. There were reports of some of the weapons having been spot welded, and even a few guns were held together by duct tape. Today, the Marine Corps is testing lighter, magazine-fed alternatives to the M249, such as the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, in an effort to further advance our soldiers' advantages on the battlefields of the future. 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 sidearm used, in some variant or other, by every branch since before World War I, the M1911A1 pistol. The adoption of the M9 Beretta was one of, so far, only two major sidearm adoption programs in a century of U.S. military history. Today, the M9 is still the standard issue sidearm across the United States Army, Navy, and Air Force. The Marine Corps has begun to replace the M9 and other field weapons with the M4 carbine rifle. 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 predecessor, the M16A2. 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 their parts in common. The United States military officially adopted the M4 in 1994 as a replacement for the M3 grease gun and the M16A2 rifle. 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. The M4 carbine has seen heavy use by United States forces, largely replacing the submachine gun due to its ability to pierce modern body armor. The weapon is eventually slated to become the standard issue assault rifle among American soldiers replacing the M16. 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 the war on terror. From the fire lance and the flintlock to the M16 and the M4 carbine, guns have been evolving since before the founding of our great nation. Even those who once worked with America's adversaries saw the importance of history and tradition even in designing something completely new. As Mikhail Kalashnikov once said, each designer seems to have his own way, his own successes and 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 be so. When future opponents disrupt the peace, what advantages will soldiers have over the enemy? At present, 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 army operatives, showing that the American military, designers, and manufacturers are working to ensure the future superiority of the gun and to continue the evolution of the firearm. Thanks for watching. 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