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The Colt ACR was Colt's entry in the U.S. DoD Advanced Combat Rifle program, which concluded with the result that none of the entrants achieved enough of an improvement over the M16 to be worth the cost.
The Colt ACR was not a total loss, however; the scope went on to be offered by
The Colt ACR was Colt's entry in the U.S. DoD Advanced Combat Rifle program, which concluded with the result that none of the entrants achieved enough of an improvement over the M16 to be worth the cost.
The Colt ACR was not a total loss, however; the scope went on to be offered by Elcan
Raytheon ELCAN Optical Technologies, also simply ELCAN ( Ernest Leitz CANada),
as the C79, a version of which was eventually adopted as the M145 Machine Gun Optic used on a number of firearms, especially those from Diemaco (now Colt Canada).
Overview
The main differences of the Colt ACR and the M16A2 is the distinctive furniture. The handguard included a heat-resistant inner lining, vent holes for lightening and air cooling with a thickened ring around the front end to act as a handstop. This was topped with an elevated sight track rib with a white stripe to improve fast target acquisition. The pistol grip was longer and of a different profile than a traditional M16A2, and the rifle featured ambidextrous fire control selectors, removable scope and a streamlined 6 position telescopic stock. Lastly the rifle featured a flash-hider and a Muzzle Brake Compensator (MBC) designed to reduce recoil and compensate formuzzle climb
Muzzle rise, muzzle flip or muzzle climb refers to the tendency of a firearm's or airgun's muzzle (front end of the barrel) to rise up after firing. It more specifically refers to the seemingly unpredictable "jump" of the firearm's muzzle, ca ...
. The World's Assault Rifles By Gary Paul Johnston, Thomas B. NelsonHogg, Ian V. Jane's Infantry Weapons 1994-1995. Jane's Information Group. 1994
Internally, an oil spring buffer was added to the lower receiver to control the cyclic rate and help reduce felt recoil. Combined with the MBC, these changes reduced felt recoil by 40 per cent compared to a standard M16A2.
Ammunition
The key design change was the use of " duplex rounds", a single cartridge with two bullets in it. Olin Corporation produced three different rounds for testing, the first consisting of twotungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...
projectiles in a long-necked case, the second used a standard-length case with two , tungsten projectiles, and the final entry was another standard-length case with two projectiles, one the other . The latter was eventually selected for submission to the ACR trials. The basic idea of the duplex load is to increase the number of projectiles fired, which is the primary determinant of battlefield casualties. However, they significantly reduced accuracy, leading to a maximum effective range of and requiring the user to also carry traditional ammunition for long-range shots.
See also
* AAI ACR *Steyr ACR
The Steyr ACR was a prototype flechette-firing assault rifle built for the US Army's Advanced Combat Rifle program of 1989/90. Although the Steyr design proved effective, as did most of the weapons submitted, the entire ACR program ended with no ...
* HK ACR
* Colt Automatic Rifle
* Project Abakan
* Buck and ball
* List of assault rifles
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colt Acr Assault rifles of the United States Colt rifles Trial and research firearms of the United States ArmaLite AR-10 derivatives