The M4/M16 jamming in combat-Historical Facts

[Jamie Young]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091011/D9B8SUPO0.html

Looks like that is one of them.

If you can name any others I'd appreciate it.   I believe this is the 2nd or 3rd major engagement in Afghanistan were this was brought up.   The Year is now 2009 and this is still going on......  Considering  how few troops we have deployed over there I am amazed that the rules for buying your own rifles hasn't changed:

"U.S. special operations forces, with their own acquisition budget and the latitude to buy gear the other military branches can't, already are replacing their M4s with a new rifle."

All front line troops should especially in Afghanistan where the deployments tend to be longer.

[JohnKSa]

I'm not sure I buy into the article completely.

• First of all, it is possible to overheat nearly any firearm if you fire it too fast in too short a time.
• Second, 600 rounds through an M249 shouldn't be a problem unless there is another problem.  e.g. Worn out, damaged or improperly maintained.  I'd like to see the M249 in question to see what really went wrong.  It's entirely possible, given that the operator was killed, that it was damaged at the same time.
• Third, if this statement is true "The platoon-sized unit of U.S. soldiers ... was shooting back with such intensity the barrels on their weapons turned white hot." then it's no wonder the guns malfunctioned.  I'm not aware of any firearm that will function reliably when the barrel has turned white hot.  The failure in that situation is that some commander sent too few men/guns to solve the problem. 

As far as every group buying what it wants--not having the right ammunition or magazines or enough of either when you need them is just as deadly as having a gun that quits working too soon.  Logistics problems are no less dangerous to troops than jammed firearms.

I think I'll wait for the results of the investigation--not sure that I'd want to base any decisions about firearms or the war in Afghanistan on an article from a San Francisco Chronicle writer.