NIH -- Syndrome of the US Army

Curator · 12-19-2007, 12:13 PM

NIH = Not Invented Here, which means not invented or manufactured in the US of A.

Seems there have been hundreds of complaints about stoppage failures with the M-4 which has gotten no attention from the Army’s Ordnance Department.

The M-4 suffers from several faults apparently, including an inability to prevent heavy sand and dust fouling the chamber because the dust is an extreme problem in the sandpit of South West Asia.

M4 Carbine Fares Poorly in Dust Test

Quote:

After firing 6,000 rounds through ten M4s in a dust chamber at the Army's Aberdeen test center in Maryland this fall, the weapons experienced a total of 863 minor stoppages and 19 that would have required the armorer to fix the problem. Stacked up against the M4 during the side-by-side tests were two other weapons popular with special operations forces, including the Heckler and Koch 416 and the FN USA Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle, or Mk16.

Another carbine involved in the tests that had been rejected by the Army two years ago, the H&K XM8, came out the winner, with a total of 116 minor stoppages and 11 major ones. The Mk16 experienced a total of 226 stoppages, the 416 had 233.

So, the weapon that did the very best, H&K’s XM8, is no good.

Why...because Heckler & Koch is German made?

Can you spell NIH, friends?

The US made M4 had 19 failures that would require "second-level" repair. That’s generally things like a broken firing pin and stuff you send it back to the depo for.

Quote:

The Army was quick to point out that even with 863 minor stoppages -- termed "class one" stoppages which require 10 seconds or less to clear and "class two" stoppages which require more than ten seconds to clear -- the M4 functioned well, with over 98 percent of the 60,000 total rounds firing without a problem.

98%!!! Awright…. So does that mean that we’d only lose 2 GIs out of every 100 to weapon failure during firefights?

Excellent…. Well done, Army.

I wonder if the idiot General sitting on the procurement board would feel if the Army only got his monthly pay right 98% of the time.

After all, statistics is just numbers, right General?

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