re: Soldiers Hate the M4 and M16. The Pentagon Is Finally Doing Something about It.

I was told by my DI in basic that the m16 was designed to wound not kill.

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I had heard the reason we switched to the .223/5.56 in Vietnam was so that we wouldn't kill many enemy combatants.

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This is an old wives' tale. The reason is weight. M16 was a smaller, lighter rifle than the M14. The M16's round is lighter than the M14, so you can carry more ammo.

As it is, weight was killing the average infantryman and still is. By the time you add up body armor, 35 pounds, rifle, 7 pounds, 7 magazines, 7 pounds, ACH, 3.25 pounds, so - that's 55 pounds and we haven't talked about uniform, boots or ruck, which can often get to another 35 or 40 pounds EASILY.

95 pounds is a figurative TON of weight (most don't carry it or don't carry it far, but still) even for a fit male of 225 pounds. And they want women to do that, right?

Now, double the weight of the rifle and almost double the weight of the ammo.

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I had heard the reason we switched to the .223/5.56 in Vietnam was so that we wouldn't kill many enemy combatants. If we wounded them, then it would take 1-2 others to carry him out.

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You heard wrong. The 5.56 was adopted because it kills people and Joe can carry lots of them compared to 7.62x51. The M16/M4 system is a fine method of introducing the enemy to the 5.56 .

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I know a few infantry guys who saw combat. They hated the round. Despite the media making it sound like the .223 round was extremely powerful, there are reports of soldiers shooting guys 3 and 4 times and watching them run away.

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This can and does happen with larger rounds too. The anecdotal experience of a couple of infantry guys is not evidence of effectiveness.

The 5.56 is lethal, but it has its compromise like any other round. The difference between 5.56 and other rounds is that the 5.56 has a huge advantage weight that is not in any way offset by a lack of lethality. 5.56 has killed a lot of people. Sure, a 12 ga slug might be "more lethal" at 10 feet, but dead=dead. More importantly, the 5.56 has enabled more covering fire and maneuvers than 12ga or 308 ever could.