Sensitive Items Essay Example

USSOCOM has approved the M4, which is favored by both the U.S. Army Special Forces and Navy SEALs. Furthermore, the Australian Special Air Service Regiment has utilized this weapon.

Malaysia's armed forces replaced their Steyr AUG service rifles with M4 Carbine service rifles in 2006. The latter will be manufactured under license by SME Ordnance Sdn Bhd and are expected to be utilized not only by the MAF but also other law enforcement agencies such as the Police and Coast Guard. The M4 family of weapons was initially produced by Colt Firearms for the United States government, who held an exclusive contract through 2009. However, other manufacturers offer similar firearms. The M16A2 has primarily been substituted for the M4A1 and M16A4, with plans for the U.S Air Force to fully transition to the M4 Carbine.

The XM177 family of the 1960s-era compact M16 versions bears similarities to the M4. In accordance with the Marine Corps motto, "Every Marine a rifleman," the United States Marine Corps has ordered officers up to the rank of lieutenant colonel and senior Staff Non-commissioned officers to carry the M4A1 carbine as pistols are commonly deemed useless in present conflicts. As per the Marine Corps Times, United States Navy corpsmen will also receive M4A1s in place of M9s. For information on M4 Carbine variants, refer to AR-15 variants. All U.S. delivery orders, excluding the first, follow this rule.

The M4 and M4A1 rifles used by the military feature a Picatinny rail on their receivers that allows for attachment of various aiming devices such as the Trijicon TA01 and TA31 ACOG, EOTech 550 series holographic sights, and Aimpoint M68 CCO. They also come with

a detachable rail-mounted carrying handle. The standard models are Colt Model 920 (M4) and 921 (M4A1). While the M4 has semi-automatic and three-round burst firing modes with an "S-1-3" safety option, the primary difference is that the M4A1 has full automatic capability instead of three-round burst.