The Armalite AR-10 (Vintage Promotional Video)

[Badger]

The Armalite AR-10 (Vintage Promotional Video)

This is a vintage promotional film for the Armalite AR-10. This is the rifle that eventually led to the M-16 currently used by U.S. forces. The video features field-stripping, the belt-fed version and even Eugene Stoner running onto a beach firing from the hip.

The AR-10 battle rifle was the 7.62mm NATO-chambered precursor to the scaled-down 5.56mm NATO-chambered M16/M4 family, the weapons that hold the distinction of being the longest-lived service rifles in US military history. This marketing film (featuring brilliant arms designer Eugene Stoner playing a most unconvincingly dumpy little AR-10-wielding soldier)was an ultimately futile attempt at selling the AR-10 in a post-WW2 small arms market that was both saturated with war surplus equipment and already well-served by the Belgian-designed FN-FAL and German H&K G3 battle rifles. The AR-10, a day late and a dollar short in marketing terms, was a non-starter, and only a few thousand were sold to nations such as Portugal, Sudan, and Cuba, where it generally gave very good service, despite its relative fragility and lack of engineering refinement and as a military weapon.

However, a market was identified in replacing smaller caliber weapons such as the US M1/M2 carbine, and so Stoner scaled the weapon down to fire a smaller-caliber, higher-velocity cartridge. The M16/M4 is of somewhat altered design from the AR-10, but it is essentially the same weapon. However, as any engineer will tell you, complex mechanical system rarely scale up or down without complications, leading to some of the problems encountered with the XM16E1 in Vietnam 1965-67.

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The Armalite AR-10 (Promotional Video)
Video length = 15 minutes

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[Warren]

The person in the film coming out of the water is NOT Eugene Stoner. It is a chap from the UK by the name of Pat.....