Archer with and M-16A1.
Lightweight and accurate (up to 800 effective meters), the 5.56mm M-16 family of rifles is the 2nd most common rifle type in the world. The western counterpart to theAK-47 , the M-16 was developed by Eugene Stoner and L. James Sullivan in 1956 and was adopted by the United States Air Force and several other countries as their primary military assault rifle, replacing the M-14 . There have been several versions and derivatives developed since then. During the Vietnam war, the rifle had the tendency to malfunction, the worst being "failure to extract", where a spent cartridge case remained lodged in the chamber after a round was fired. These issues were subsequently adressed and the malfunction rate slowly declined.
Variants[]
M-16A1 - The first version to become the primary assault rifle of the US Army, the M-16A1 is fully automatic and lightweight. The variant was heavily used in the Vietnam War.
M-16A2 - Introduced in the 1980s to replace the M-16A1, the A2 replaces the A1's fully automatic capability with a three round burst fire mode and added sturdier parts.
M-4 carbine - The M4 is a shorter and lighter variant of the M-16A2. The rifle is widely used by the U.S. military and will eventually replace the M-16 rifle for most combat units in the United States Army.
M-16A4 - The fourth generation of the M16 series, it is equipped with a removable carrying handle and a full length quad Picatinny rail for mounting optics and other ancillary devices. The rifle is currently standard issue for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Appearances[]
- In El Contador, Archer wields an M-16A1 with a 20-round magazine.
- The rifle also appears in Drift Problem , Smuggler's Blues , The Rules of Extraction , and On The Carpet .
- In several episodes, two M-16A2s can be seen on the wall in the ISIS armory.