h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A570241
This is my first attempt to write up an entry. I posted it to the workshop and got some great feedback, and was told that posting it here would be a good idea. So, I'll be happy to get any additional feedback- too technical, not technical enough, problems with grammer or format, whatever it is, let me know (: And, if some scout is watching and thinks it's good enough, I'd be happy to see it posted to the edited guide (:
Grim13, Master of Reverse Emoticons

Grim13,

Good piece.

Can I suggest a mention of the evolving variants of the weapon in US service, (M16, M16A1, M16A2) and the reasons for the changes (chronic unreliability, ammunition change).

I do take issue with one of your statements, the M16 is not appreciably the 'weapon of choice' for most western armies. While extremely popular it is not the standard service weapon in UK, France, Germany, Italy, Austria et al.

There are others around here who can give much better advice than I on style, so I shall leave that up to them if they feel it will be helpful, I'm still very new at contributing myself.

All the best,

Cestus

Hi Grim13 and welcome to Peer Review!
I've just read your article and it seems to be amde of the right sort of stuff
I'm no expert on weapons but I can tell you that the weapon of choice for the British Army is the infamous SA-80 which has a 30 round magazine (but pratically only 28 round). It also fires the standard NATO issue calibre 5.56 round. It might be worth mentioning that it is 'rumoured' that the British Army is considering changing to the M-16 as the SA-80 has been plagued with difficulties ever since it went into manufacture. But that's only a rumour.

One other thing is that the link towards the bottom of the entry 'This excellent site about the history and evolution of the M-16' is a bit long to be neat, especially as it also appears in the 'Referenced Sites' section. I suggest that you consider revising the link so that you give the site a name, like 'Additional M-16 Information' so that the link looks neater. Also, a header such as 'Further Reading' might be appropriate for the links you've provided at the bottom.
Other than that, a nice entry!
Sorry for writing so much,

Kenrick

Oops! Sorry about the typos in the posting.
'amde' is meant to be 'made' and 'infamous' is meant to be 'imfamous'.

Kenrick

Kenrick - are you sure "infamous" was meant to be "imfamous"?!

Grim13 - re: "weapon of choice". The British Army weapon of ISSUE is commonly called the SA-80. On the other hand, the SAS (who as an special forces unit are able to choose the weapons they use) prefer the M-16. Andy McNab (author of Bravo Two Zero) may have been being diplomatic when he described the choice in terms of the SA-80 being a Rolls-Royce, when what a soldier wants and needs is a jeep.

I'm not an expert on weapons, but as I understood it, LAR stands for Light Automatic Rifle, the technical name for what is commonly referred to as an assault rifle, although purists insist that a true assault rifle uses a lower-powered cartridge than the NATO 5.56.

The Prophet

Well I thought that was excellent.

I remember being very pleased with it when Lara got it in Tombraider II

Can't really comment like others above as I have no knowledge of this particular area.

The "sorry" weapon? I'm trying to visualise someone wandering around on a bus carrying one (I am in the UK, not something you see every day - not many people get on buses with machine guns here).
Woman on bus "Hey was that your weapon you poked me with are are you just pleased to see me?"

Anyway, great stuff, right up with the quality needed for an edited guide entry .

Orcus

Orcus - it's been a long time since there was National Service in this country, so we've got out of the habit in the UK of seeing people in uniform everywhere. In Israel, everyone does National Service. During that time, they carry their weapon with them, everywhere. Supermarket, bus etc, hence the "sorry" weapon. This is (I am told) also a reason why it is illegal to hitchhike in Israel. In the event of a military emergency, all currently serving members of the armed forces are empowered to go into the street and thumb a lift from the first passing vehicle, who is required by law to stop and take them to their barracks. To prevent abuse of this requirement on the citizenry, general hitchhiking is banned.
Someone please correct me here if I'm perpetuating a misconception.

I think it could still use a bit of work.

I agree with Cestus, I think some background into the different versions (A1 & A2) would be good. The different versions of the weapon have been extremely controversial. The A1 was a piece of junk. It took them 25 years to get the weapon to work properly.

I could probably give you some of the information on that. I have transitioned twice from the M-16A1 to the M16A2 and once from the A2 to the A1. Incidentally, the maximum effective range of the M16A1 is 300 yards (although the Marine Corps required that Marines qualified out to 500 yards). The maximum effective range of the M-16A2 is 550 yards.

I'm not familiar with the different versions of the M-16 you mention. It sounds like what we referred to as the M-16A2, the full up assault rifle and the CAR-15 (or is it 16) that is the cut down model.

A mention of the Colt Sporster might be cute. Although that may never have made it out of the United States. That reminds me, you may want to drop the colt label. Several companies have produced them. We had one in basic that was manufactured by Westinghouse.

I don't know how the US suckered y'all into using the M-16. I suspect there are far superior weapons out in the world. I would think the AK-47 would be the weapon of choice around the world. It's a good bit more reliable than the M-16.

I'm actually quite fond of the M-16A2. After all the abuse I put mine through during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, it held up very well. All I ever really had to do was brush of the face of the bolt, and it was ready to go. I'm hoping to get an M-16 issued to me at work soon.

LAR is acronym for:

Libyan Arab Republic
Light Armored Reconnaissance
Light Assault Rifle
Light Attack Reconnaissance
Light Automatic Rifle
Load Access Rights
Local Acquisition Radar
Logistics Area Representative
Logistics Assessment Review
Logistics Assistance Representative
Logistics Assistance Resource


Dancer

And clearly - Large Acronym Repository

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