The Black Rifle: History of the M16 Rifle
Written: Oct 28 '06 (Updated Oct 28 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Detailed, illustrated, highly interesting
Cons: Should be in every man's library
The Bottom Line: An extremely well written, illustrated history of the Colt M16 Rifle, which has served the US Armed Forces for over 40 years.
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| George_Chabot's Full Review: R. Blake Stevens and Edward Clinton Ezell - Black ... |
The Black Rifle (1992), by R. Blake Stevens & Edward C. Ezell
The Colt M16 Rifle has been the standard issue rifle of the US Government's military services for over 40 years. This longevity gives the M16 pride of place as the longest serving infantry rifle in US history.
The Black Rifle is a well researched and written history of the M16 rifle that details the development, adoption, procurement, and modification of the rifle by the US government armed forces; a process starting in the late 1950s and ongoing today.
Starting life as the ArmaLite AR15 rifle, designed and built by a private firm, the ArmaLite Division of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation, the rifle was a result of extensive research by the Army, beginning in 1948.
R. Blake Stevens' book details the official studies, and the results were surprising to say the least. The findings included that most kills occurred within 100 meters; marksmanship was not as important as volume of fire; and small arms fire was seldom effective beyond 300 meters.
These findings led to the SCHV (Small Caliber High Velocity) studies, from which the Army concluded it needed 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 commercial procurement opportunity was counter to the traditional non-competitive procurement of rifles through the government armories. Needless to say, there were many, many vested interests set against such an innovative program.
To compound the difficulties, the Army had just adopted the M14 rifle, a traditional caliber (30 caliber or 7.62 mm) weapon built by Springfield Armory. The Black Rifle covers the political chicanery and skullduggery of all parties involved, throwing 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. The AR15 was gas operated, air cooled, magazine fed, with automatic and semiautomatic modes of fire, the straight line design helped manage recoil during automatic fire and the simple hinged takedown made cleaning simple and quick. A further advantage was the AR15 could be manufactured by automated machinery, which was a significant improvement over previous weapons which required hand work by skilled artisans.
ArmaLite's chief problem was lack of a market. The USA 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. The attempt by the US to switch NATO to a new 5.56mm cartridge fell on deaf ears.
ArmaLite had been established in 1954 for the sole purpose of developing military firearms using the latest in plastics and non-ferrous metals. After several years of existence at considerable expense with no return on investment, the parent company Fairchild was looking for a buyer to get it off their hands. And in December 1959 Colt, a well-known manufacturer of weapons, acquired manufacturing and marketing rights to the AR15 for a payment of $75,000.
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 AGILE tests, Defense Secretary McNamara ordered 85,000 M16 rifles for the Army and 19,000 for the Air Force. Vietnam was on the horizon and the M16 would play a prominent role in that conflict.
Stevens' book details the M16's growing pains as it was rolled out through the Armed Forces and baptized in the crucible of war. The rifle was modified to counter the reliability problems identified in the field due to lack of cleaning, including a chrome bore and chamber, a new buffer to slow the rate of fire, and a cleaning kit that was carried within a cavity in the stock of the weapon.
Throughout the book, Stevens discusses many more interesting issues that will interest the historian or student of arms. And the rare photographs of the coffee table-sized edition are well worth the price of the book. The price is not cheap, but the book is a bargain with all the detail and information packed within.
If you are a history fan or gun buff, The Black Rifle will become a cornerstone of your library.
Also by R. Blake Stevens - The M14 rifle
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