The Roles and Weapons with the Squad

[Pete]

This study was also the lever for much US Army foolishness in attempting to use technology to compensate for poor training, a disastrous failure that is still entirely too prevalent.

True, but that's always been the American way. There were the Spencer rifles and carbines during the Civil War and the Pedersen Device idea during War I.

If I recall correctly the statistical study Fuchs posted was cited as one of justifications cited for adopting the M16 in 1965. At the time when the M14 vs M16 thing was going on I've also gotten the impression that McNamara had a big grudge against U.S. Army Ordnance, particularly its sprawling empire of depots and installations, which he wanted to convert into DoD facilities. I also read something to the effect that the comparative shoot-off by Ordnance between the M14 and the FN was then regarded at the DoD level as having been rigged in the M14's favor. The old Army Ordnance gave us some true subject matter experts like Julian Hatcher but I fear they had begun to think they had all the answers about everything. It could have been sort of a "Pride comes before a fall" kind of thing.