Us Army Patents New M4A1 Heavy Barrel

[Dawes]

Hasn't this concept been tried before?

 

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2020/07/10/army-m4-heavy-barrel/

[bojan]

Yes, but "most of the new is well forgotten old"

[Simon Tan]

Spiral fluting. My old workplace put these on guns in 2011 onwards. So I argue that their patent is not worth anything due to prior art.

[bojan]

IIRC some experimental WW2 Australian gun also used it, and so did one of the aircraft Madsens.

Edited July 11, 2020 by bojan

[Markus Becker]

"The new barrel dramatically reduces the risk of barrel failure or premature ammunition detonation, i.e., a cook-off, by diffusing heat faster than the conventional M4A1 heavy barrel, which soldiers had reported were failing during combat in Afghanistan."

 

Fluted barrels have been around for decades and that sounds like they need more LMG. They must be putting a lot of ammo through the rifles if the barrel...., wait shouldn't the gas tube fail first to prevent the barrel from doing so?

[shep854]

"...shouldn't the gas tube fail first to prevent the barrel from doing so?"--Markus Becker

Not with the shorter barrel of the M4, etc.

[Dawes]

"The new barrel dramatically reduces the risk of barrel failure or premature ammunition detonation, i.e., a cook-off, by diffusing heat faster than the conventional M4A1 heavy barrel, which soldiers had reported were failing during combat in Afghanistan."

 

Fluted barrels have been around for decades and that sounds like they need more LMG. They must be putting a lot of ammo through the rifles if the barrel...., wait shouldn't the gas tube fail first to prevent the barrel from doing so?

There were some engagements in Afghanistan where troops had to burn through mag after mag in full auto because they were in danger of being overrun. Obviously the M4 wasn't designed to be a LMG.

[shep854]

AIUI, the spec for the M4 was 90 rounds/minute sustained fire. Reality got to vote...

Edited July 12, 2020 by shep854

[Simon Tan]

Do you know what the dumbest part of that barrel is....carbine length gas system. With a middie, they wont even need the step. But even dumber is the fact that they are still using barrel clamp 203s. This is why you shoot guvmint engineers. They are useless.

[Markus Becker]

"...shouldn't the gas tube fail first to prevent the barrel from doing so?"--Markus Becker

Not with the shorter barrel of the M4, etc.

Can someone explain the physics behind that? The round produces the same heat regardless of barrel length and I assume the propellant all burns inside the barrel...in which case the shorter barrel would have to take the same heat as a long one and thus fails before the gas tube?

[JW Collins]

Is there some desire to make a squad or fireteam automatic rifle version of the M4A1? Maybe similar to the Colt Automatic Rifle derived from the M16?

[bojan]

Why?

[Nikolas93TS]

They could always adopt M27 IAR if they had such a requirement.

[Simon Tan]

Enginerring Change vis new program.

[shep854]

In his M4 videos, Chris Bartocci (SmallArmsSolutions on YouTube) has pointed out that the M4 was originally intended as a 2d tier weapon, and that the heat problem did not come up until the carbine was used very hard by SPECOPS and also became the first-line infantry weapon. The military was slow to catch on to the issues of much heavier use.

[Simon Tan]

The US Army is unable to manage a unit armory. The leadership and line is just not interested enough to do so.

[shep854]

Also, pilfering at unit levels was a problem. I once saw a mention in a news report of NG M16 parts turning up on gun show tables.

[Simon Tan]

Not a problem today.