Does the group prefer piston driven M4/M16's over AK's or M14's?Phaedrus, I doubt they had access to every battle rifle up to this point. Maybe US Rifles, but not every battle rifle in the world. Not even within NATO which includes the British SA80, Swedish AK5, Germany and Spains Hk G36, French FAMAS, Italian AR70/90, Mexican FX-05, Russian AK74, and Belgium and croatian FN F2000. All of which are 556.
I am not saying that the m-16 or variants are not accurate. They are. I am not even saying they aren't reliable. What I am saying is it takes a lot of effort and keeping several small parts on hand to keep them reliable. That is why after every firing and every patrol they are broken down, cleaned, and inspected. Lots of effort. Basically like saying you got 500k miles out of a car without it ever breaking down, never mind the fact you had to change all the fluids and filters ever 500 miles and replace half the gaskets every 3k miles to achieve it.
One cannot compare a Chinese civilian AK to a true military AK. The fact you even did that made me do a face palm and illistrates that you have no idea of what a true Russian military AK is. I also never stated that an AK will never stop running. What I am saying is that the Taliban can keep an AK running without any proper cleaning, no replacement parts, and no armorers for decades. What we need is something not so high maintenance which I touched on in the second paragraph. BTW, we never ditched the 7.62 either. If the 5.56 was all that and a bag of chips we would have.
I know the US won't adopt the AK for a military rifle. Not saying they should. I just said an AK in 7.62 NATO would be a great rifle for our military presently. For future rifles I believe they should look at something as reliable and low maintenance as an AK. As urban warfare continues and develops, I believe shorter and lighter rifles are key. Perhaps a bullpup style with a 12-14" barrel?
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