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

Very interesting! I was not aware that the IDF used the M16 so much.

I have some comments on the M16 cartridge. The smaller caliber, 5.56mm (.22 inch) versus the previous NAT0 standard of 7.62mm (.30 inch), was the M16's major innovation.

The larger 7.62mm cartridge is actually excessive for normal infantry use. It provides more range, but the range is not usable in practice. The additional size and weight means fewer rounds will be carried (by roughly 2 to 1).

However, the larger caliber became standard prior to WWI because, until then, machine guns were not issued to infantry units. Missions that, today, are considered jobs for machine guns, were accomplished by entire platoons of riflemen firing in volley. Therefore, the rifle needed a machine gun cartridge.

This need became obsolete when machine guns became standard issue in WWI. Tradition and inertia kept the larger cartridge alive through the 1950s. (When the US M1 Garand rifle was being developed in the 1930s, consideration was given to chambering it for the .22 Swift cartridge, very similar to the M16 cartridge. Officially, the Swift was rejected beause switching cartridges would cause logistical problems. With war possibly imminent, this was declared to be too risky.)

Even in the 1960s, the US Army rejected the M16 and its smaller cartridge. However, the US Air Force bought M16s to issue to airfield guards in Vietnam. Before long, Army troops were demanding M16s.

Since then, almost every new infantry rifle has adopted a cartridge of smaller caliber.

There is nothing wrong with the .303 catridge. I much prefer it to the .30-06 and the .308. And, I'm a big fan of the #4Mk1. I'll take a bolt action over a pray and spray any day. Right now I've got an old beat-up 7.92mm Mauser of indeterminate parentage. I've dug ditches and I've used Ml6A1s. On the whole, I'd rather dig than handle another M16A1.