Nazi Germany’s M-16 Style Rifle

Aaron Spuler is a firearms enthusiast and recreational shooter. Follow more or his work at The Weapon Blog

No, there weren’t time travelers that gave them modern M-16 rifles…

Another revolutionary development that is now a staple of modern combat was the a night-fighting system designed for the MP-44. Nicknamed the Vampir, the cumbersome infrared targeting scope would allow the soldier to extend his combat operations to any hour of the day. The system consisted of a battery carried in a backpack configuration, a telescope (or sniper scope), and an infrared searchlight. While the Vampir system reportedly saw use in the waning months of the war, it was never widely distributed, and sources indicate that only some 300 of these units were made.

With the conflict in Iraq, combat photography is once again prevalent in the media, and it would be impossible to miss images of U.S. soldiers toting the omnipresent M4 weapons system. Based on the venerated M-16 assault rifle (now redubbed the M2), this “system” provides the infantryman with a versatile set of interchangeable assets, which augment his weapon’s mission—eliminating the enemy from the battlefield. This system is state-of-the-art, but its origin dates back nearly 60 years to the early days of World War II Germany.

Read the rest of the article: http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/explained-nazi-germany-had-its-very-own-m-16-style-rifle-26320