national archives

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more at: http://quickfound.net/links/military_news_and_links.html A brief history of US Army rifles is followed by an overview of the Advanced Combat Rifle program. Weapons tested were the AAI Corporation fléchette rifle, the Heckler & Koch G11 series, the Steyr ACR, and the M16 derived Colt ACR. None of the rifles tested were found to be a big enough improvement over the M16A2 to justify its replacement. "THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT HAS BEGUN AN INTENSIVE SEARCH FOR A WEAPON TECHNOLOGY THAT WILL AT LEAST DOUBLE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RIFLEMAN IN COMBAT. THIS PROGRAM BRIEFLY DESCRIBES THE FOUR ADVANCED FIREARM PROTOTYPES CURRENTLY BEING DEVELOPED BY INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS. THE NEW FIRING RANGE AT FT. BENNING WILL BE USED TO TEST THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PROTOTYPES. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ARMY RIFLE IS ALSO PRESENTED." US Army film TVT20-938 Public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and equalization (the resulting sound, though far from perfect, is far less noisy than the original). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Combat_Rifle The Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR) was a United States Army program to find a replacement for the M16 assault rifle. The program's total cost is approximately US$300 million. Phase I of the program started in February 1986 when development contracts were placed with six companies: AAI Corporation, Ares Incorporated, Colt's Manufacturing Company, Heckler & Koch (H&K), McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems (MDHS), and Steyr Mannlicher. Two weapons were cut from the list before Phase II started. The companies started an appeals process and were eventually re-instated, but too late to see testing before the ACR program ended. Eugene Stoner's Ares Incorporated also entered their Advanced Individual Weapon System (AIWS), which used a 5mm tracer round, but had to withdraw due to ongoing problems. The AIWS shared some features with the Steyr entry, notably the "rising chamber" action and "telescoped" cartridge. Phase III began in August 1989, when AAI, Colt, HK, and Steyr entered weapon testing. Although all the designs worked well, none managed to meet or even approach the 100% improvement over the M16A2 that the program demanded. In 1986/7, the United States Army Infantry School had published a report asserting that the rifle, as a weapon, had already reached its peak, and the only way to really improve matters was to use an exploding warhead. This led to the ending of the ACR program in April 1990, and led the way to the Objective Individual Combat Weapon program. The ACR program was preceded by older programs such as the Special Purpose Individual Weapon. AAI AAI Corporation entered the latest variant of their long line of experimental fléchette rifles. Their entry used a standard 5.56 x 45 mm cartridge case firing a 1.6 x 41.27 mm fléchette of 0.66 grams at 1402 m/s. One of the biggest complaints about their earlier efforts was the loud muzzle blast, a problem that is hard to avoid with a sabotted round. As a result, AAI added a flash hider/sound suppressor that reduced the muzzle blast to just louder than an M16A2... H&K The Heckler & Koch G11 series used caseless ammunition where the propellant was molded onto the bullet itself, making the round smaller and much lighter. The new K2 version used in the ACR tests held 45 rounds in a single long magazine lying along the top of the barrel, leading to a distinctive and somewhat blocky appearance. Steyr The last entry submitted was the Steyr ACR, another fléchette-firing weapon. The Steyr differed from the AAI in the details of the round, which used a plastic shell casing to reduce weight. The firing mechanism was quite complex as a result... Colt One of the more traditional of the ACR prototypes was the Colt ACR, which was a hi...