Its not an issue as this article would have people believe. Even the issues that do exist could be addressed without replacing the system as a whole.

Ive got to say that some retired officer whose last time in combat was 40+ years ago pontificating about our troops current needs off of what he learned in the Mekong is a joke. The only thing the same about that weapon system and the one we carry on a daily basis is the operating system.

We have weapons that see 10k+ rounds a year and the only thing we really burn is bolts and barrels and sometimes cam pins. These guns are ran hot, suppressed, with high round counts between cleaning.

Most of the issues are maintenance issues that we can address with proper lubrication. These carbines kept wet with a real lube (not clp) run like a top and stay accurate. The rest are mag induced failures.

You want your m4 or variant burn it down on the range and real world? easy..

-Replace mags if they induce more than one failure (that means track your mags regular army. An Okay industries mag from gulf war one is unacceptable)

-Change bolts every 5k rounds or before a deployment if your unit is short on funds

-Use a quality lubricant like slip2000, fireclean or froglube. The army won't buy it? Too bad, be a real NCO and take care of your soldiers. Don't accept mediocre CLP, it might kill you. Keep your gun wet with lube, and a small bottle to add lube if your bolt dries up during extended fire.


As a side note, discussions of lethality are meaningless when rounds don't land on target. Lets face it, most soldiers can't shoot. Actually training past BRM and a few repetitions of ready up drills will go a long way towards showing how lethal 5.56 can truly be.