Major M4 Mods in the Works

[unhappycamper]

Major M4 Mods in the Works
My good friend Matt Cox over at Army Times has done it again.

In what might be the best mil­i­tary weapons story of the year so far, Matt got his hands on a brief that shows the Army is seri­ously look­ing at major improve­ments to the cur­rent M4, includ­ing a heav­ier bar­rel, a new round counter and poten­tially mov­ing to a gas-​​piston oper­at­ing system.

The improve­ments, if imple­mented, would address most of the major crit­i­cisms of the cur­rent M4 con­fig­u­ra­tion and would also answer the mail on a study of the 2008 Wanat bat­tle that seemed to indi­cate that some weapons had a high inci­dence of stop­pages when fired at high cyclic rates.

Army weapons offi­cials say they want to give sol­diers some­thing bet­ter, sooner. While there is no set time­line, the hope is “to have this nailed by January,” said Col. Doug Tamilio, the head of Project Manager Soldier Weapons.

“As we move down this car­bine com­pe­ti­tion path, let’s con­tinue to make sub­stan­tial improve­ments to the M4,” Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller said Oct. 27. Fuller com­mands Program Executive Office Soldier, the com­mand respon­si­ble for sol­dier weapons development.

The Army has made 62 changes to the M4 since it began field­ing the weapon in the mid 1990s, weapons offi­cials main­tain. The changes have ranged from improved extrac­tor springs to high-​​tech optics to a more reli­able magazine.


Rest of article at: http://defensetech.org/2009/11/23/major-m4-mods-in-the-works/?wh=wh

[Craftsman]

1. Good, the M16/M4 system is good

but a gas piston would make great.