Military Infantry's Weapon Firing Mode?

Because giving everyone the option of full-auto is wasteful of ammunition. The -16 A1 and A2 had it; when things got chaotic, many troopers--even those with experience--would react by emptying their weapon in the general direction of the enemy instead of try to take aimed shots at something, a 'technique' called "spray and pray" by the troops.

The need for continuous, full-auto fire support is why we have the M-249 SAW and heavier machine guns--with trained, designated gunners operating them--in the system.

Yes, for some 15 years now although at least as late as 1999, the Air Force was still issuing the old automatic versions. Made for some real problems when working with the Army because the new ammunition is dangerous to use in the old guns. Automatic mode is not very useful as the whole clip is expended almost immediately, the gun sprays making it inaccurate, and it made logistics all that much harder since so much ammunition was wasted.

The reason that the US military got rid of the auto selection on the M16 was because of the excessive amount of ammunition that a soldier would go through in order to hit one tareg; i think the ration in Vietnam was nearly 50000 rounds for every KIA. Even today, the ratio is even higher (250K per insurgent killed); the problem is so bad that Ammunition plants in the US cannot keep up with the demand, forcing the US to purchase ammunition from Israel and increasing the price on .223 remington ammunition here in the US. (.223 Remington is the metric measurement for the 5.56x45mm)

However, Colt made an "enhanced" fire control system that enabled the weapon to fire in single, 3 round burst and full auto; currently installed on all Colt carbines and rifles with an "8" as the last digit of their model number (M938, M738) and are known as Colt Enhanced Carbines.

http://www.autoweapons.com/photos05/apr/995m16.htm...

With respect to the m-16, you are correct about full auto. Not every man in an infantry unti needs full auto, it is a waste of ammo. But that is not to say, there is not a need for large volumes of heavy machinegun fire.

Every fourth man in an infantry squad carries a SAW (squad automatic weapon). It fires the same round as the M-16, but usually from a linked belt.

Furthermore, assault rifles are't really conducive to sustained automatic fore like the SAW provides. The small mass makes them heat up too quickly and inability to swap barrels leads to having to wait for your barrel to cool.

Simply put, they (whoever) deicded to divide the jobs of grunts among two primary weapons.

Full auto fire on a weapon in 5.56mm has proved to be a waste of ammo and accurate hits seldom being registered on targets.

Looks good in the movies but in real life unless you have the Chinese/Korean style mass attack not very practicle.

Aimed shots and 3 round bursts are all thats needed.

It's true. The M16A2, M16A4 and M4 only have semi and burst.

Generally speaking firing on full auto is a waste of ammunition as you cannot keep a shoulder-fired weapon on target for much more than a three round burst.

It depends on the infantry rifle and variant in question.

While it makes more sense to issue a rifle that hasn't had fully automatic fire disabled, there are some benefits to it.

It encourages infantrymen to fire accurately and to not waste ammunition. If a rifle section were to fire full automatic in a contact, their rounds would go all over the place, likely strike nothing and needlessly use up ammunition. If they were to fire single shots, chances are their shots would be on target.

I think we should go with a kinetic energy weapon that uses a wire spool for ammunition. or perhaps a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.

fully automatic rifles like the m-4 are used in an evassive maneuvre like in an austalian peal...to attract the enemy towards you while the other team members bound back to repeat that same procedure until reached a safe zone like the last rally point!

so, the m-16's do not need fully automatic..waiste of ammo..and draws too much attention..learn how to shoot and you'll be just alright!

people waste ommo and you can only carry so much,its very heavy.