I tought classes on this while I was in the Army
Got it.
The M16 was the epic fail of American rifles. The M16A1 was an improvement.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to challenge your expertise.
Wasn’t it the M16A2 that was the improvement in Vietnam?
no, M16A2 was in the late 70s early 80s
47s and its generation has been cycled out at this point though. Pretty sure there's a whole lot of them rusting in abandoned stockpiles now
The M16A1 was in service by 1968.
After NATO adopted the 5.56NATO
The A1 was the model that only had burst fire, right?
No, it had semi and full-auto.
A2 are burst, A1 full auto
Weren’t automatic M1 Carbines also being used in Vietnam?
Yes.
Also used in Korea.
I’m a history major, so historical weaponry interests me.
M1s by then were upgraded to M2s but yes they were used by MAC-V and MAC-V supplied RoVA units
@Khanclansith If you don’t mind my asking, where did you serve while in the Army?
I was a headquarters monkey out at Shafter for 3 and half years, and I was in HHBN 10th Mountain Division.
Even after the AK-74 (5.45X39mm) was in service, the AKM was still used until the late 80s, if I remember correctly.
In 1986, the AKS-74U carbine was made and was used by Russian tank crews and paratroopers and is still used today.
AKMs never completely left service, They were in the last lines of mobilization and remain so to this day in the Soviet sucessor states.
Well, I figured that I was wrong.
It is hard to translate Soviet moblization orders to US and NATO counterparts because everything was put in the MOs.
I bet.
The Security Guards at the Car Battery Manufaturing Plant were part of the Red Army's MO
Do you know when the Dragunov SVD was put into service? Wasn't it around 1976?
Not off the top of my head
1963 I was aproved for service in the Red Army http://modernfirearms.net/en/sniper-rifles/standart-caliber-rifles/russia-standart-caliber-rifles/dragunov-svd-eng/ Source is sometime off but has access to Russian archives being a local near there
Back in 1958 the requirements were published by the Red Army for what would become the SVD
I see...
The Soviets realized as soon as they gave everyone a carbine that they lost an important "Reach out and Touch Some A-hole" capacity that intermediate rounds just lack.
I mean I've been to some backwater companies during my service, but the most use I've seen AKMs have is during oath swearing
Pretty sure everything remotely related to combat uses newer models
Hell, even as comms, we had 74s
Yeah, like I said, the Soviet MOs were far outside what Western militaries did.
Still are At least here in the big country
I am doubtful that any "Regular Army" member (draft or pro) has handled an AK-47 to AK-49/2 in decades.
49/2s were still handled in 1998 in some conscript companies
