Development+of+Firearms

Overview
There have been dramatic changes in the field of firearm innovations. We started out with simple, dangerous, and unreliable ‘hand cannons’ and have now moved on to more powerful, accurate, and safe weapons. Things that people believed could not be accomplished have been revolutionized by the sheer will of wanting to manufa cture safe yet unfailing weapon systems that can allow them to eliminate an enemy from unseen distances. In conditions with sand, mud, snow, etc. they have created dependable guns that will still operate and function properly even after being put through rigorous testing. Items such as the flintlock “were a major innovation in firearm design” (History of the Firearm) at the time but dedicated men and woman have put in their time to make firing systems faster and more reliable as the years went on. In the mid-1900's the first cartridges were invented. This is a percussion cap, gunpowder, and a bullet all put together in one to form a weatherproof package. This is the ammunition used in our modern day rifles and paved the way for automatic weapons. The Gatling gun was the first automatic weapon, but it had one problem it was enormous. Weighing in at 60 pounds it took four men to be able to use it effectively. It did prove to have a great advantage over other standard rifles being able to pump out around 400 plus rounds a minute, but the very limited mobility made it only effective when defending a position or suppressive fire, which is firing in the general direction of combatants forcing them to stay behind cover. The first really mobile and hand-held machine gun was introduced in World War 2. The Germans had been working on an automatic rifle that chambered their standard, 7.92x57mm round. They had come up with various models, but with that kind of high power round the recoil became uncontrollable. But from among that rubble the STG-44 was born. It featured a round specifically designed for that weapon that still gave optimal firepower without making the gun too uncontrollable to use. These innovations to machine guns led to one of the most recognizable assault rifles ever made, t he AK-47. Designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov in the late 1940's it proved to be a cheap and reliable firearm that could fire in any condition and with little maintenance. Although Kalashnikov was not a weapons manufacturer he began designing weapons while being hospitalized after receiving injury during battle. The end result was the now infamous Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle. Even though this rifle made history there is always room for improvement, and one of the many things any nations military force looks to improve is how effective they are. One obvious way would be the gear they carry. Out of all our military units Navy Seal Team Six receives the best equipment and gear, getting to use it before any other military group. Two of the newest additions to the Seal Teams arsenal of weapons are the H&K 416 assault rifle and the H&K 45 pistol. Some of the innovations made to the HK416 were taking the revolutionary gas system from the H&K G36 assault rifle, another rifle created by Heckler and Koch, and incorporating into HK416. With this new short-stroke gas system it gives greater reliability to the rifle even after being through severe testing giving greater reliability over classic rifles such as, the Colt M4 Carbine. The H&K 45 "represents an evolutionary advancement" (Heckler & Koch HK45) giving you the stopping power of a .45 caliber pistol in a compact package. This has replaced the Mark 23, which had a problem in size. It functions great, but with a suppressor attached it measures almost a foot and a half long making it a hefty piece of equipment. The H&K 45 keeps the stopping power but reduces the size and gives you the ultimate tactical pistol fit for any situation. Even though there are problems innovative adjustments have been made to solve these, and are constantly being upgraded to give the user the best feel and capability with the weapon system he has.

Optics
Other smaller yet useful innovations not directly related just to firearms are optics. Scopes, red dots, etc. give the shooter a more accurate sight to look through that is more dependable and consistent than the iron sights. It also vastly improves accuracy among any shooter even if it is your first time as well as giving you better peripheral vision of your targets.

Fighting Tactics
We can use all of these innovations to change the way we fight. Back during the periods of the Revolutionary and Civil War we fought in straight lines who marched right at each other shooting and reloading their muskets as fast as possible until they had to resort to hand to hand combat with bayonets when their front lines met. Now we have evolved into more guerilla-like fighters. We now have the ability to take out targets over a mile away with the single pull of a trigger. We use this to our advantage by training soldiers to be able to calculate the components they will need to know to be able to get a hit with the first bullet fired. We can even send in a five or six man team to extract a hostage or POW from an enemy base, even if it's far behind enemy lines. This is also accomplished through how we train their troops. This is why there are different areas where a certain military group is called in based on what they have been trained for. The president wouldn’t call the navy if he wanted to do a ground-based operation unless he was requesting help from seals, but this does not mean that the separate divisions cannot work in unison. There are often joint operations between different divisions.

H&K 416 Development
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Covent Garden Books. "Weapon." New York: Penguin, 2009. Print

Wikipedia contributors. "StG 44." //Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 24 November 2013. Web. 24 November 2013.

Wikipedia contributors. "AK-47." //Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 24 November 2103. Web. 24 November 2013.

Wikipedia contributors. "Heckler & Koch HK416." //Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 20 November 2013. Web. 24 November 2013.

Wikipedia contributors. "Heckler & Koch HK45." //Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 15 November 2013. Web. 24 November 2013.

"PEO M4 Carbine RAS M68." N.d. Photograph. //Commons. Wikimedia.org.// 8 June 12. Web. 24 November 2013.