DFX TECHNOLOGY
M16 / M203
The M16 is still a general-issue rifle with the US Armed forces. It is also widely used by the US Law Enforcement agencies, either in military form (for example, the LAPD had some M16s, retired from Army), or in "civilian" semi-automatic only form. The AR-15 style rifles are made in the USA by at least dozen large companies, such as Armalite, Bushmaster, Colt, FN Manufacturing, Hesse, Les Baer, Olympic, Wilson Combat, and by number of smaller companies, many of which do assembly their rifles from components made by some other major manufacturers. M16-type rifles also manufactured outside of the USA, most notably in the Canada, by Diemaco Co. China also makes some AR-15 type rifles at NORINCO state factories. M16 rifles are used by many foreign military groups, most notably the British SAS, who preferred the M16 over the infamous L85A1 rifle, and by many others.

At the present time almost all initial flaws of the M16 are bugged out, and it is considered among the best assault rifles in the world. While its reliability in the harsh conditions cannot match reliability of its main rival, the Kalashnikov AK-47 and AK-74, it is still a quite reliable rifle, especially when well maintained. It is also comfortable to fire and quite accurate.

One of the key advantages of the Eugene Stoner design, that must be especially stressed, is the extreme flexibility of the construction. At the present time the interchangeable complete "uppers" are available in various barrel lengths and profiles (from 7 to 24 inches long, slim and heavy), in dozens of rifle and pistol calibers (from tiny but fast .17 Remington and up to monstrous .458 SOCOM, and from .22LR and 9mm Luger up to mighty .50AE). Special, manually single-shot uppers are commercially available in the extremely powerful .50BMG (12.7x99mm) caliber.

The M203 grenade launcher was developed between 1967 and 1968 by the AAI Corporation of USA. Since AAI had no resources for mass production, the manufacturing contract was issued to Colt. Later on, more or less exact copies of the M203 were produced in Egypt, South Korea and Bulgaria (as UBGL-M1, with mount suitable for Kalashnikov AKM and AK-74 type rifles). During the 1990s, M203 went into several modifications, such as shorter-barreled M203A2, intended for shorter M4 carbines used by US SOCOM. M203 launchers are still being used by US armed forces, and by many other armies, including those of Australia, Israel, South Korea, Philippines, Turkey and some others.

The M203 is a single-shot, breech-loading weapon with rifled barrel. The rear part of the barrel is covered with a polymer handgrip. If necessary, the M203 can be mounted on separate shoulder-stock / pistol grip assemblies (available from several companies, such as Colt or Knight's Armament) to be used as a stand-alone weapon.