The heavier barrel is more durable and has greater capacity to maintain accuracy and zero while withstanding the heat produced by high volumes of fire. New and upgraded M4A1s will also receive ambidextrous fire control. The award came under protest and the Army is currently developing several courses of action to comply with the Government Accountability Office ruling and concerns regarding the competition.
Once the contract dispute is resolved, other services will be able to place M4A1 and M4 orders against the contract as well. The Army authorized the conversion of all M4s to the M4A1 standard with the upgrade currently budgeted for , M4s. The Army awarded six contracts for MWO kit components to date. Five of the awarded contracts went to small businesses. PM SW anticipates awarding the final contract this summer for the barrel and bolt assembly.
SARET is scheduled to begin upgrading M4s at a maximum rate of 8, a month beginning in late summer PM SW completed its best value M4 carbine bolt and bolt carrier assembly competition in April , though the competition was scheduled to conclude in summer The gas-piston system failed in several early variants, though the problem was traced to differences in manufacturing rather than intrinsic design flaws. With new iterations, the M4 quickly gained a reputation for reliability, both on the range and in field situations.
Range tests now have the M4 firing at least 1, rounds before jamming, up from , while in field conditions, soldiers report almost no failures, with the ones that are reported often due to improper or overly-delayed maintenance.
The Army-issued M4 has undergone over 90 design improvements over the years, which led to the upgraded M4A1 model of the carbine. The weapon still has its critics, however.
As recently as , Army generals and soldiers have complained about jamming and overheating in all M4 models. Robert Scales , a military analyst and retired Army major general, has cited the M4's gas impingement system as its primary drawback and has argued that the gun cannot be improved without replacing the gas impingement system altogether. In response to complaints, the Army has called for weapons manufacturers to begin producing another round of upgrades to the military-grade carbine.
There are no plans to scrap the gas impingement system. In , the government price of every new U. Their prototypes and others were tested extensively as early as , with several trials taking place up to That year, a single-source order for the Colt M4 was made, essentially closing down the competition. Although other similar weapons were still being tested around the world, the Pentagon backed Colt in what amounted to an exclusive contract.
The early jamming issues were resolved in manufacturing, and in , the Pentagon permitted other makers to begin manufacturing M4 weapons and accessories. Share this comparison:. If you read this far, you should follow us:.
Diffen LLC, n. For CQB and room clearing, she is a bit long, but that can be compensated for. The M4 jams quite a lot more often than the M16A4 does. I personally never had my M16 jam on me. I took care of her though, and I've noticed that a lot of people who complain about the M16 are either talking about the OLD ones from Vietnam, are not in the military, or did not perform proper Weapon and Magazine Maintenance.
It's not the armorers job to lube her guys, that task falls to the Marine or Soldier she is issued to. Take care of her and she will love you back. Using the M4A1, I experienced 7 Jams despite correct maintenance. The Bolt Carrier does not have as far to travel, so it has less time to extract the round and chamber the next.
If the mag spring is weak, it may not lift the next round high enough in time. I'm thanking God I never had to carry the M4 into combat.
The weapon can also be fitted with advanced combat optical gunsight ACOG , reflex sights, EOTech holographic weapon sights and a night vision sight. The M4 is a selective fire weapon offering semi-automatic and three-round burst fire modes. The M4A1 can fire rounds in fully automatic mode. The M4 can fire at the rate of to rounds per minute for an effective range of m. AKM is the main service rifle in use in the Russian Army. It is an improved variant of the AK assault rifle.
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The Iveco Massif is a heavy-duty four-wheel-drive vehicle manufactured by Italian firm Iveco, a subsidiary of motor company Fiat. Get important industry news and analysis sent to your inbox — sign up to our e-Newsletter here. News Analysis Features Comment Projects. Army forces being equipped with the automatic variant. Upgrades included a heavier barrel to better dissipate heat from sustained automatic firing, which also helps the rifles use the MA1 EPR that has higher proof pressures and puts more strain on barrels.
The full-auto trigger group has a more consistent trigger pull, whereas the burst group's pull varies on where the fire control group is set, resulting in more predictable and better accuracy on semi-automatic fire.
Another addition is an ambidextrous selector lever for easier use with left-handed shooters. The M4-M4A1 conversion only increases weapon weight from 7. Three conversions can be done per day to equip a brigade combat team per week, with all M4A1 conversions to be completed by The weapon has a suppression-ready fluted barrel, which is lighter and cools better than previous M4 barrels. It is claimed to have "markedly better" accuracy. To improve reliability, Colt used an articulating link piston ALP , which "reduces the inherent stress in the piston stroke by allowing for deflection and thermal expansion".
This is known as carrier tilt. The ALP allows the operating rod to wiggle to correct for the downward pressure on the bolt and transfers the force straight backwards in line with the bore and buffer assembly, eliminating the carrier tilt.
This relieves stress on parts and helps to increase accuracy. The modern Model has a "flattop" receiver, with a removable carrying handle and a MIL-STD Picatinny rail, with semi-automatic and automatic fire. The Model Commando has the features of the Model , but has three-round burst fire instead of automatic.
A noted critic of the M4, he illustrates the deficiencies found in the rifle in its current configuration. In the video, he demonstrates his "Arm West LLC modified M4", with enhancements he believes necessary to rectify the issues with the weapon. Proprietary issues aside, the weapon is said to borrow features in his prior development, the Ultimax. Sullivan has stated without exact details as to how the weapon can fire from the closed bolt in semi-automatic and switch to open bolt when firing in fully automatic, improving accuracy.
The weight of the cyclic components of the gun has been doubled while retaining the weapon's weight at less than 8 pounds. Compared to the standard M4, which in automatic fires rounds a minute, the rate of fire of the Arm West M4 is heavily reduced both to save ammunition and reduce barrel wear.
The reduced rate also renders the weapon more controllable and accurate in automatic firing. The M4 carbine has been used for close quarters operations where the M16 would be too long and bulky to use effectively. It has been a compact, light, customizable, and accurate weapon. This has come at the cost of reliability and maintainability. Failure to maintain the M4 causes malfunctions. This became apparent as it saw continued use in the sandy environments of Iraq and Afghanistan.
By late , 89 percent of U. There were many malfunctions, including 20 percent of users experiencing a double feed, 15 percent experiencing feeding jams, and 13 percent saying that feeding problems were due to magazines. Some had trouble locking the magazine into the weapon and having to chamber a round in order to lock the magazine.
Soldiers also asked for a larger round to be able to kill targets with one shot. New optics and handguards made usage of the M4 easier, and good weapon maintenance reduced the number of misfeeds. The CNA conducted surveys on 2, troops returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 12 months.
Only troops who fired their weapons at enemy targets were allowed to participate. M4 users had the highest levels of satisfaction with weapon performance, including 94 percent troops with accuracy, 92 percent troops with range, and 93 percent troops with rate of fire. Only 19 percent of M4 users troops reported a stoppage, and 82 percent of those that experienced a stoppage said it had little impact on their ability to clear the stoppage and re-engage their target. Both factors were attributed to high levels of soldiers performing their own maintenance.
Some M16 users expressed their desire to be issued the M4. Ten of each type of rifle were used to fire 6, rounds each, for a total of 60, rounds per rifle type. Despite minor stoppages—termed "class one" stoppages, which require 10 seconds or less to clear, or "class two" stoppages, which require more than ten seconds to clear—the M4 functioned well, with over 98 percent of the 60, total rounds firing without a problem.
The Army said it planned to improve the M4 with a new cold-hammer-forged barrel to give longer life and more reliable magazines to reduce the stoppages. Magazine failures caused of the M4's failures. Army officials said the new magazines could be combat-ready by spring if testing went well. According to the Army, the M4 only suffered stoppages and said that the high number reported could be attributed to discrepancies in the scoring process. The Army testing command stated that, if the number of stoppages caused by a broken part met some threshold, they would be eliminated from the final report pending redesign of the part.
Colt also claimed that the testing conditions were unfair to the M4, as the M4s used in the test were normal guns from active inventory, with remaining service life varying randomly. Further, the trial M4s had burst-mode fire groups, which are more complicated and prone to failure than the fully automatic fire groups the other manufacturers presented for testing. There were three extreme dust tests performed in The 2nd Summer results showed a large difference from the later fall test with the M4 having class 1 stoppages due to rifle malfunctions and class 1 stoppages due to magazine stoppages.
The full-size M16 rifle had 61 stoppages during the same extreme dust test. In early , two journalists from the New York Times spent three months with soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan. While there, they questioned around infantrymen about the reliability of their M4 Carbines, as well as the M16 rifle.
Troops did not report to be suffering reliability problems with their rifles. While only troops were asked, they fought at least a dozen intense engagements in Helmand Province, where the ground is covered in fine powdered sand called "moon dust" by troops that can stick to firearms.
Weapons were often dusty, wet, and covered in mud. Intense firefights lasted hours with several magazines being expended. Only one soldier reported a jam when his M16 was covered in mud after climbing out of a canal.
The weapon was cleared and resumed firing with the next chambered round. Furthermore, a Marine Chief Warrant Officer reported that there were no issues with his battalion 's M4s and M16s. The reliability of the M4 has increased as the design was upgraded. In , the M4 was required to fire mean rounds between stoppages using M ammunition. In , the current M4A1 version can fire 1, mean rounds between stoppages using MA1 ammunition. An array of firearms accessory makers have offered gas piston conversion kits for the M4.
The claimed benefits include less needed lubrication for the bolt carrier group to run reliably and reduced fouling. Complicating the Army search for higher reliability in the M4 is a number of observations of M4 gas piston alternatives that suffer unintended design problems.
The first is that many of the gas piston modifications for the M4 isolate the piston so that piston jams or related malfunction require the entire weapon be disassembled, such disassembly cannot be performed by the end-user and requires a qualified armorer to perform out of field, whereas almost any malfunction with the direct-impingement system can be fixed by the end-user in field.
The second is that gas piston alternatives use an off-axis operation of the piston that can introduce carrier tilt, whereby the bolt carrier fails to enter the buffer tube at a straight angle, resulting in part wearing.
This can also tilt the bolt during extraction, leading to increased bolt lug failures.
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