The Black Rifle
by R. Blake Stevens & Edward C. Ezell
Enhanced Second Edition, 1992
416 pages, 441 illustrations

This tremendous resource book is privately published by Collector Grade Publications, whose website is listed below.

The Black Rifle details the development, adoption, procurement, and modification of the Colt M16 rifle by the US government armed forces, a process starting in the late 1950s and ongoing today. The M16 rifle has the distinction of serving longer than any other rifle in history as the standard US infantry weapon, currently approaching 40 years.

Starting life as the Armalite AR15 rifle, designed and built by a private firm, the Armalite Division of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation, of Costa Mesa, California, the rifle was a result of extensive research by the Army’s Office of Operational Research (ORO), beginning in 1948. The book details the official studies, blow by blow, but for purposes of this review, the results were counter to every tenet of traditional Army doctrine. Some of the findings were as follows:

· Marksmanship was not as important as volume of fire;
· Random shots had more chance of wounding than aimed fire;
· Small arms fire was seldom effective beyond 300 meters;
· Most kills occur within 100 meters.

These findings led the Army to conclude that what it needed was a low recoil rifle firing a number of small projectiles, rather than the traditional rifle caliber weapon capable of 1200 meter kills. In 1957 the Army sought commercial rifles in 5.56mm (22 caliber) to satisfy the new specifications. This was also counter to the traditional procurement of rifles through the government armories, Springfield and Rock Island. Needless to say, there were many, many vested interests set against such an ambitious program. The Army had just adopted the M14 rifle, a traditional caliber weapon built by Springfield Armory. The Black Rifle covers the political chicanery and skullduggery of all parties involved and throws light on a very interesting and seldom seen view of how government and business work behind the scenes.

Armalite’s AR15 was the 15th weapon in their development series, hence the name. It was designed by Eugene Stoner, a gifted engineer who combined the best elements of a number of previous weapons to design the hybrid AR15.

· locking system from US Johnson Automatic Rifle
· direct impingement gas system from Swedish Ljungman rifle
· in-line stock to help with manageability during auto fire
· hinged upper/lower from Belgian FN-FAL rifle
· rear sight in carry handle like British EM2
· ejector port cover from German MP44

The AR15 could be manufactured by automated machinery, which was a significant improvement over previous weapons.

The chief problem, initially, was lack of a market. The US had recently bullied NATO into adopting the 7.62mm US cartridge, a shortened version of the US WWI-era 30’06. The government hoped to sell NATO the M14 along with the new cartridge. The NATO members had acquiesced and adopted the cartridge, however, they had overwhelmingly adopted the Belgian FAL rifle over the archaic (Pre-WWII) design of the US M14 rifle. Now the US wanted NATO to adopt a new cartridge? It was an extremely hard sell with no takers. Armalite sales worldwide were in the doldrums due to this climate as well as the cold war.

Armalite had been established in 1954 for the sole purpose of developing military firearms using the latest in plastics and non-ferrous materials. After several years of existence at considerable expense with no return on investment, Fairchild was looking for a buyer to get it off their hands. In December 1959 Colt, a well-known manufacturer of weapons, acquired manufacturing and marketing rights to the AR15. By 1962, Colt’s salesmen had convinced the Army to take 1,000 weapons for testing in project AGILE. The Army nomenclature for the AR15 rifle was M16, hence the name change. Based on the tests, Defense Secretary McNamara ordered 85,000 M16 rifles for the Army and 19,000 for the Air Force. Vietnam was just beginning and the M16 would be along for the party.

Early reports from combat indicated the M16 was not living up to its advertisements, however. When it was all sorted out the problems fell into the categories of reliability and accuracy. A congressional investigation revealed the M16 was not issued with cleaning equipment and the Army had changed cartridge propellants after settling on the 5.56 cartridge. The original IMR propellant worked fine in the M16, however it could not sustain the required velocity without pressure considered excessive. Therefore the switch to Ball Powder which would meet the pressure specs but was more dirty and increased the rate of fire beyond what the M16 was designed for.

To counter the reliability problems, the rifle was modified and redesignated the M16A1. Mods included a chrome bore and chamber, a new buffer to slow the rate of fire, and a buttstock cleaning kit. I believe the rate of twist was sped up to 1 in 12" from the original 1 in 14" to enhance accuracy.

Throughout the book, there are discussions of many more interesting issues than I have room to cover here. The rare photographs of variations through the years are well worth the price of the book for the serious student of arms. The price ($59.95) is not cheap, but the book is well worth the investment.

So far as I know, the book is only available over the Internet at the following URL:

http://www.collectorgrade.com/bookshelf4.html

If you are an historian, engineer, or gun buff, do yourself a favor and get a copy of this book. You will be well pleased with The Black Rifle!

Thanks for reading!


Recommended: Yes