Tomorrow's Rifles

The weapons of modern navies and air forces are largely the products of the most modern technology, but on the ground the basic infantry weapon, the rifle, has barely changed in half a century. The M-14 carried by present-day G.I.s is only a slight improvement on the heavy, clumsy M-1 of World War II; the M1, in turn, was little different from the Springfield of World War I. They are all large-bore weapons firing heavy bullets that have rapid spin, which aids their long-range accuracy--a quality that has little value in a rifle in a modern war. Production of the old M-14s was finally stopped last spring. The Defense Department has now ordered 85,000 of the Colt arms company's small-bore M16s, most of which will be sent to Viet Nam, where they have already been proved in combat.

The killing effect of a rifle bullet depends on the energy it carries, and that energy increases with the square of the bullet's speed. The bullets of the .223-cal. M-16 make up for their lighter weight by having a muzzle velocity of 3,250 ft. per sec.--significantly more speed than the 2,800 ft. per sec. of the .30-cal. M-14. The cartridges are lighter, and so is the rifle itself. An M-16 with 120 rounds of ammo weighs only 9 Ibs., no more than an empty M-14. Its bullets are not as accurate at ranges greater than 300 yds. because they are deliberately given less stabilizing spin. They tend to tumble, and since they usually hit their targets sideways, they do extra damage. The M-14 kicks like a mule, but the M-16 is almost kickless. It can be fired rapidly, with little tendency toward wildness.

The M-16 is just the beginning of the rifle revolution. Under development:

sb TWO-SLUG CARTRIDGE. For run-of-the-draft riflemen, whose aim is usually wide of the target, the Army is experimenting with cartridges containing two bullets, one packed behind the other. The front bullet flies true, but the rear bullet is deliberately made rough-ended so that it lags and drifts a little, approaching the target a foot or more to one side. The resulting shotgun effect is calculated to improve the score of a non-deadeye marksman.

sb MULTIPURPOSE RIFLES. For infantrymen who have always longed for rifles that can be fitted out to serve efficiently as magazine-fed light machine guns or heavy-volume belt-fed machine guns, the Defense Department is testing two such weapons systems under battlefield conditions, and trained marines make the transformations in less than 1 min. while wearing clumsy Alaskan mittens.

sb MICROJETS. For short range targets not more than 100 yards away, tiny rockets called microjets are now being tried. No bigger than bullets, they are filled with a quick-burning propellant and launched in quick succession from a thin-walled, hand-held tube. Their chief advantages are light weight and silence. They operate not with a bang but a hiss.

sb DART-THROWER. For the future, the most radical rifle is SPIW (Special Purpose Infantry Weapons, pronounced "spew"), which fires darts instead of bullets. Called flechettes, French for "little arrows," the darts are about as thick as pencil leads and an inch or so long. They have tiny fins or thin tails to make them fly straight, and their needle-sharp points allow them to move through the air like supersonic aircraft with much less drag than short, fat, traditional bullets. Several can be fired from the same cartridge, but Army experts prefer to use one per cartridge and have the gun fire three flechettes automatically in quick succession. The darts are easily deflected by wind, brush or even leaves, and when they hit an enemy they may pass straight through his body without doing much damage. But it is far more likely that they will turn and bend, slashing through flesh like high-speed knives.

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