[EDITOR: From a DT friend (who prefers to remain anonymous) on his chop of the AWG's fight for their HK-416s]
The AWG folks are a special US Army task force to deal with IED threats that has turned into a semi-covert group of trigger pulling "trouble shooters." They got the HK416 because of their semi-official/semi-covert status and then got them taken away when Sen. Coburn both noticed this and embarrassed the Army small arms procurement brass by pointing it out.
To be fair to the Brass, they are in a no-win situation because small arms are a religious faith where true believers will not be swayed by real data.
In the realm of hard "non-religious data," there seem to be two major knocks against the M4: fouling after lots of firing, and excessive jamming in sandy conditions. Controlled tests in sandstorm-of-the-century conditions indicate the M4 is worse than the HK416 and FN SCAR, but all are in the 99-percentile reliability range.
To quote something a friend of mine sent on the issue:
"Excessive fouling depends on how many major firefights you get into before you can pull maintenance. All three systems use some sort of cylinder-and-piston arrangement to manage the gases. In the M16-type system, it's in the bolt carrier itself, while the other two restrict it to a small area near the gas port. They all have to be cleaned, eventually. The competition community has developed some M16 gas system tweaks that might interest serious trigger-pullers.
As a professional, your weapon's health comes first, just like your horse would if you were cavalry. If someone gave me one of each of these weapons, and several thousand rounds of ammo, I might develop a clear favorite. I doubt highly that I would find one totally unfit for my uses."
I have also been told that a number of M-16 jam problems would disappear if the H&K M16 magazine were adopted as standard issue. It is "...the absolute best out there. Built, and priced, like a BMW.
In the particular case of the HK416 and the AWG, Sen. Coburn would have done better by the troops by earmarking money for HK416.
Since Coburn is a Republican "Small Federal Government"/anti-earmark true believer, this was the result.
From the military procurement point of view, earmarks actually play a very important role in defense readiness in non-glamorous things like transport ships, trucks, and planes.
Rep Les Aspin’s 1980’s earmarks of extra 10-ton HEMET trucks gave the US Army the truck transport to pull off the famous left hook in the 1991 Gulf War.
Sen Trent Lott’s earmarks of amphibious ships have given the USMC 20% of its current amphibious fleet.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s earmarks of extra C-130’s and Rep Dana Rohrabacher’s earmarks of extra C-17’s are the wings resupplying troops in Afghanistan.
Outside of those non-glamorous areas, DoD earmarks are rightly seen as pernicious.
-- [Anonymous]
We live in a day and age where we DO NOT know where the magazines were made....We DO NOT know where our ammunition is made...The only thing we can trust is some pencil pusher bought thestuff at the best rock bottom price he could find. I believe we should restore trust. The best rifle in the world will not fire garbage. Just like the computer folks say GARBAGE IN?GARBAGE OUT !!!! I read a few years back where ammunition was bought from TAIWAN. This was done because the deadbeats in the GOP thought it was more important to cut corners than spend a few bucks hiring people to wprk at the arsenals in the USA. This insanity has to stop. There is a massive conspiracy under way in this country since Ronald Reagan was president to drain the wealth out of the middle class. It has got to the point now that it has imperoled the soldiers on the battlefield. I don't think the democrats have done much to help the military or the middle class either since 1980.It is SHAMEFUL that this generation will be poorer than the one before it. This is not how America is supposed to work. All the evil in weapons and ammo can probably be traced back to some fatcat slimeball that is trying to replace democracy with the same royalty we got rid of 220 years ago.I want to know how many magazines and how much ammo issued to the GIs today came from 3rd world countries. What is wrong with spending money in the USA and let American citizens build our war making materials? When I was in the military we could be shot for making deals with China. Now I am beginning to ssupet we may be getting our ammunition from there. When did the Communists stop being Communists.? We need to protect our soldiers,airmen,aand sailors if we are to remain a free country. We need to keep our ability to equip our military IN THE USA.regardless of what some sneaking little fatcat rat might have to say.I guarantee these rats never spent time in the military nor will their children.
Posted by: Dwayne Stanislowski at April 24, 2009 11:13 PM