M-16 Rifle M16 Training Film: Rifle XM16E1 Operation & Cycle of Functioning pt1-2 1966 US Army 15min
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US Army training film TF9-3663
NEW VERSION in one piece instead of multiple parts, and with improved video & sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrt3xu8KHsw
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VntwFqcE4-g
1984 US Army
Training Manual
M16,
M16A1 TM-9-1005-249-10
http://www.archive.org/details/OperatorsManualForM16M16a1
1991 version TM9-1005-249-23P
http://www.archive.org/details/ArmyTechnicalManualforM16Rifle-Tm9-1005-249-23p
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M16_rifle
In 1954,
Eugene Stoner of the newly formed ArmaLite helped develop the
7.62 mm AR-10... The AR-10's receiver was made of forged and milled aluminium alloy instead of steel. The barrel was mated to the receiver by a separate hardened steel extension to which the bolt locked. This allowed a lightweight aluminum receiver to be used while still maintaining a steel-on-steel lockup. The bolt was operated by high-pressure combustion gases taken from a
hole in the middle of the barrel directly through a tube above the barrel to a cylinder created in the bolt carrier with the bolt carrier itself acting as a piston.
Traditional rifles located this cylinder and piston close to the gas vent. The stock and grips were made of a glass-reinforced plastic shell over a rigid foam plastic core. The muzzle brake was fabricated from titanium...
In
1957.. General Willard G. Wyman, commander of the
U.S. Continental Army Command. He immediately put together a team to develop a
.223 caliber (
5.56 mm) weapon for testing. Their finalized request called for a select-fire weapon of 6 pounds (2.7 kg) when loaded with 20 rounds of ammunition. The bullet had to penetrate a standard
U.S. steel helmet, body armor, or a steel plate of 0.135 inches (3.4 mm) and retain a velocity in excess of the speed of sound at
500 yards (460 m), while equaling or exceeding the "wounding" ability of the
.30 Carbine.
Wyman had seen the AR-10 in an earlier demonstration, and impressed by its performance he personally suggested that ArmaLite enter a weapon for testing using a 5.56 mm cartridge designed by
Winchester. Their first design, using conventional layout and wooden furniture, proved to be too light. When combined with a conventional stock, recoil was excessive in fully automatic fire. Their second design was simply a scaled-down AR-10, and immediately proved much more controllable. Winchester entered the
LMR, a design based loosely on their
M1 carbine, and Earle
Harvey of
Springfield attempted to enter a design, but was overruled by his superiors at Springfield, who refused to divert resources from the
T44. In the end, ArmaLite's
AR-15 had no competition. The lighter round allowed the rifle to be scaled down, and was smaller and lighter than the previous AR-10. The AR-15 weighed only around
5.5 pounds (2.5 kg) empty, and 6 pounds (2.7 kg) loaded (with a 20 round magazine)...
Fairchild had spent $1
.45 million in development expenses, and wished to divest itself of its small-arms business. Fairchild sold production rights for the AR-15 to
Colt Firearms in
December 1959, for only $75,
000 cash and a
4.5% royalty on subsequent sales. In 1960, ArmaLite was reorganized, and
Stoner left the company...
Secretary Robert McNamara... had long been a proponent of weapons program consolidation among the armed services. 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 the weapon be adopted unmodified, in its current configuration, for immediate issue to all services...
On
February 28, 1967, the XM16E1 was standardized as the M16A1.
Major revisions to the design followed. The rifle was given a chrome-lined chamber (and later, the entire bore) to eliminate corrosion and stuck cartridges, and the rifle's recoil mechanism was re-designed to accommodate Army-issued 5.56 mm ammunition. Rifle cleaning tools and powder solvents/lubricants were issued.
Intensive training programs in weapons cleaning were instituted, and a comic book style manual was circulated among the troops to demonstrate proper maintenance. The reliability problems of the
M16 diminished quickly..
M-16, AR-15, ArmaLite,
Colt, US Army, rifle,
M-16 rifle,
.22,
.22 caliber,
5.56mm, weapon, military, automatic,