I know. Small comfort to the poor sods that have to use the damn thing.
Not to hijak the thread, but I have always wondered something. Occasionally, when watching the news and/or a movie, I will see an M16 with a different foregrip than the standard M16A2 rounded grip. It looks much more square and has holes the length of each side. The closest picture I could get was this. I know it’s a BB gun, but it conveys the general shape. Any ideas?
Continuing the slight headgear hijack…
American troops wear berets on occasion, too. Army Airborne troops wear a red beret. Special forces wear a tan beret, Rangers wear a green beret, and the rest of the US Army wears a black beret, as do USAF Security Police personnel. Unless, of course, they’re wearing a fatigue cap, which seems to be the preferred choice of headger when the sun can get in your eyes.
Scottish regiments tend to wear either the Balmorral (not a Tam O’Shanter) or the Glengarry headgear. Irish regiments might include a Tam in their headgear.
These generalizations, of course, deal with headgear worn when wearing BDU’s - what the Brits would refer to as combat kit.
An easy way to tell UK from US forces on TV is to look at the helmets when they’re wearing them. British troops wear big rounded Kevlar helmets that seem very well-padded. American troops wear the new Kevlar “Fritz” helmet, which has a lower rear “brim” area the protects the ears and the back of the neck. The “Fritz” helmet got its nickname - and a deal of controversey when it was adopted - from its resemblance to the German helmets from WWII. Fact is, this is just a good helmet design and the US Army adopted it in the '80s.
Take a look here: The gentleman to the far right is a British soldier, offering an excellent look at the British helmet and camo pattern. To his right (camera left) is a US Marine, giving us an excellent view of the American helmet. The fellow they’re listening to as he points to a map is a British RAF bomb disposal expert, and his helmet has a face shield attached to it but it is otherwise identical to the standard British helmet.
:ahem: that would be the caubeen: http://www.dnanetwork.co.uk/rifles/caubeen.cfm
Excellent post, by the way, QuizCustodet!
I will add that some Scottish regiments wear the Glengarry, with a red-and-white diced band:
rivit: The handguard on the rifle you linked to is used when the rifle is equipped with a grenade launcher (which you can see under the barrel).
Here is another handguard on a 16" carbine barrel. Its integrated rail system allows easy addition of laser sights, night-vision scopes, flashlights, etc. I want one of these for my (pre-ban) rifle. Too bad it’s soo bloody expensive!
That is an M16 with an M203 40mm grenade launcher attached to the bottom of the foregrip, unless you are talking about the early M16 triangular handguard. Does this help?
US Army Special Forces (a specific organization) wears the green beret; they are frequently referred to as “The Green Berets” for this reason. UK Royal Marines also wear Green Berets, IIRC. US Army Rangers used to wear a black beret, until Army Chief of Staff Shinseki mandated that black berets would be issued to the entire Army. In response to this, the Rangers began to wear tan berets. The UK SAS also wears tan berets. The official shade for Airborne, I believe, is maroon.
Whoops - got the Special Forces and the Rangers mixed up…thanks, censored