Personal Weapons/Tools
The reason that you drop paratroops onto a target is to take it, usually by some sort of potentially lethal force. More often than not, that force will be based upon the personal weapons of those same troopers. The Roman legionary’s only weapons were a short, straight-edged sword (with a blade 18 inches/.46 meters long) and a couple of javelins. By comparison, today’s airborne soldier carries an amazing array of personal firepower and tools. While some people might admire the elegant simplicity of the legionary’s weapons, you have to remember that modern infantrymen face an array of enemies and targets unlike anything imagined two thousand years ago. While the legionnaire might have had to face another pikeman or mounted soldier, today’s soldier might be asked to destroy a tank or bunker, or shoot down an airplane or helicopter. This is an enormous group of tasks, and obviously requires a versatile array of tools to accomplish. Fortunately, the U.S. Army has done an above-average job of equipping him for the task.[24] M16A2 Rifle. Historically, airborne troops have often been armed with submachine guns (like the British Sten, or the German MP38, misnamed “Schmeisser” by GIs), or short-barreled folding-stock versions (“carbines”) of standard infantry rifles. These are not only lighter, but easier to manage in the cramped confines of a troop carrier aircraft. The U.S. Army, however, equips its airborne infantry with the standard M16A2, preferring the benefits of standardized training, logistic support, and superior accuracy from a longer-barreled weapon. This is the story of that weapon.
Americans love rifles. Without the firepower and lethality of the famous “Kentucky” rifle (developed by German and Swiss gunsmiths in Pennsylvania), there would be no America. The Indians would have wiped out the struggling colonies in Massachusetts and Virginia in the 17th century, or the English would have defeated them in the American War of Independence. The intimate connection between the American rifle and American history makes military firearms a volatile and controversial topic, and no rifle in history has caused more passionate controversy than the M16. When it was first issued to U.S. troops in Vietnam in 1966, it gained a reputation for jamming. Soldiers whispered rumors about a Marine platoon overrun by the Viet Cong in which every dead rifleman was found with a cleaning rod in hand, desperately trying to clear a stuck cartridge case. (The Marine Corps Historian told me that there is no evidence that this ever happened!)
The problems stemmed largely from the Army’s use of low-grade propellant in the ammunition, against the advice of the manufacturer. The inferior powder caused excessive fouling and corrosion. This would not have been so bad except that due to a shortage of cleaning kits and lubricant, troops thought that the M16 was a “self- cleaning weapon.” Unlike the indestructible bolt-action rifles of World War II that the veteran sergeants had handled all their lives, a gas-operated automatic like the M16 is a precision machine that requires meticulous and thorough cleaning after firing to ensure continued reliable operation. When proper cleaning kits were provided, and troops were trained to maintain the weapon, the M16 proved to be absolutely reliable. To improve the weapon even further, the chamber was chrome-plated to resist corrosion, and a sturdy manual bolt closing lever was added, to force home any cartridge that became stuck (this is typically caused by a dented cartridge case, which never should have been loaded in the magazine in the first place).
For over two decades, the basic M16 (as well as the improved M16A1) served in the armed forces of the U.S. and many of our allies. However, by the 1980s, a new version was needed, and this became the second- generation M16A2. Manufactured by Colt in Hartford, Connecticut, the M16A2 is an air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle firing a 5.56mm (.223-caliber) bullet to a maximum effective range of about 600 yards/550 meters. The weapon weighs 8.9 lb/4.05 kg loaded with a thirty-round magazine. A selector switch toggles between safe, single shots, or three-round bursts. The full-automatic (“rock and roll”) mode of earlier M16 models, which could empty an entire clip in a few seconds of wild inaccurate spraying, has been eliminated. Airborne troopers are trained to extend their ammunition even further by limiting themselves whenever possible to single, aimed shots. Another key improvement to the M16A2 was the muzzle compensator, an ingenious gas deflector that counteracts the muzzle’s natural tendency to climb during a burst. The weapon can also be quickly adapted for left-handed shooters (about 15 percent of troops) by switching the side to which spent cartridge cases are ejected. Generally, the M16A2 is an excellent combat rifle, and is among the best of its class today.
Beretta M9 Personal Defense Weapon. An incredibly small percentage of combat casualties are inflicted by handguns. Under the stress of combat, even the best-trained pistol shooters are unlikely to score first-round hits on an alerted opponent at ranges beyond five yards/meters! Normally, military combat pistols are only issued to officers, military police, aviators, and soldiers whose duties prevent them from using a rifle effectively but who still require a lethal close-combat weapon. For the U.S. armed forces, that weapon is the M9 Beretta Model 92F 9mm handgun. The choice of a “foreign” weapon to replace the classic Colt M1911.45-caliber automatic was bitterly controversial in 1985, but M9s for the U.S. Department of Defense are actually assembled in Accokeek, Maryland.
The Beretta’s basic design dates from the 1930s, though it packs a number of modern safety and firing features. Advantages of this 9mm weapon are its large fifteen-round magazine (compared to just seven in the M1911A1 Colt and only six in the Smith & Wesson.38-caliber revolver), light weight (1.15 kg/2.61b with a full magazine), and superior controllability, especially for troops with small hands. The barrel is 125mm/almost 5 in long, giving a nominal effective range of around 50 meters/55 yards. Realistically, though, most shooters are trained to work out to about 25 meters/27.5 yards.
Overall, the M9 is an excellent weapon, albeit one with more in the way of safety features than I personally prefer. The weapon is normally issued with a cleaning kit, and there are a variety of holster designs, depending on the soldier’s uniform. Normally, the M9 would be carried, along with several spare loaded magazines, on the trooper’s web belt.
M203 Grenade Launcher. The practical limit for throwing a hand grenade is about 30 meters/33 yards, and the accurate limit is considerably less. During World War I, various armies experimented with “rifle grenades” that used special cartridges or muzzle adapters to launch an impact-fused explosive grenade from a standard infantry rifle. When properly employed, they were effective out to a range of 100 meters/110 yards or more. The rifle grenade was particularly useful in street fighting, where a skilled grenadier could put an explosive round over a wall or through a window. The U.S. Army never took much interest in rifle grenades, preferring the greater firepower of light mortars operated by specialist crews. In Vietnam, however, a short-barreled 40mm grenade launcher, the M79 “thump gun,” proved its worth, becoming a standard squad weapon. The only drawback was that the grenadier had to carry the additional weight of his own M16 rifle, switching weapons according to the tactical situation.
The M203 is a clever compromise, fitting a stubby pump-action 40mm grenade launcher under the barrel of a standard M16A2. One man in every four-man fire team is equipped with an M203. The grenade launcher adds only 3 1b/1.36 kg to the weight of the weapon. It consists of a hand guard and sight assembly with an adjustable sight, and an aluminum receiver which houses the barrel latch, barrel stop, and firing mechanism. The launcher fires a variety of low-velocity 40mm ammunition. These include high-explosive fragmentation, smoke, tear gas, and illumination rounds. Illumination grenades, which are fired at a high angle to deploy a dazzling magnesium flare on a miniature parachute, are particularly useful to the 82nd Airborne, which prefers to fight at night. Each illumination round is good for about a minute of fairly bright visibility. “Non-lethal” plastic and foam-rubber “beanbag” rounds have also been developed for riot control and peacekeeping. The launcher also has a quadrant sight which may be attached to the M16A2 carrying handle and used when precision is required at longer ranges. Maximum effective range against an area target is 1,150 feet/350 meters. Against a point target the practical range is about 490 feet/150 meters. The minimum safe range for combat is 100 feet/31 meters. This is an important weapon for the fire team, providing a base of heavy fire at the very head of an infantry assault.
M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. Late in World War I the German Army realized that the light machine gun, carried and operated by one man, was a key ingredient to a new, aggressive approach to small- unit tactics. The new tactics were based upon the seamless integration of infantry firepower and maneuver. This tactical doctrine was later refined and perfected in World War II, and the light machine gun that made it possible found its ultimate expression in the MG-42. This light machine gun was so good that the U.S. Army adopted it, with minor “improvements,” as the 7.62mm M60. The powerful 7.62mm round was also fired by the M14 rifle. Unfortunately, with the introduction of the M16 (which fired a 5.56mm round), the M14 was rendered obsolete.[25] This left the Army without a “rifle caliber” combat rifle, and now required the carrying of two separate sizes of ammunition (5.56mm and 7.62mm) by U.S. rifle units. This was hardly a desirable
