Quote:
Originally posted by debaser
I suggest you study up on the terminal ballistics of the 62 grain 5.56 ball round before making such silly comments. 
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Actually, from the 14.5 inch barrel of the M-4, or the 10 inch barrel of the OICW Ke Module/Colt Commando, the SS-109 is rather poor in fragmentation properties, and with a 62 grain bullet, that's about all that's actually going to kill someone. For a true 'man-stopper' the West German export 7.62 (and now German Bundeswehr Mil-Spec) NATO is absolutely horrendous. It puts on average an 11mm hole, and leaves tons of fragments. The world's best surgeons would have a hell of a time sorting that mess out. Plus, until it hits something tough, like skin, ballistic gelatin, or a tree, it stays flat and even like Warsaw Pact 7.62.
For a well-trained, well-equipped soldier under normal combat conditions, the M-16A3/A4 are the best rifles in the world for a number of reasons:
Reliability with good maintenance
Accuracy potential
Good volume (with the A3 variant, which is just getting divvied up to the Marines these days) of fire
User Friendliness
Ubiquitousness - This is the key seller. A huge number of nations have taken to the M-16, or a clone of the AR-15 series. Given this, it's generally cheaper in some places to shift slowly or even quickly to M-16 weapons, if a US friendly nation, than to stick with or switch to AK-47.
Really, this debate is a little unfair for a number of reasons:
The M-16 was contracted due to a military sight to need a response to the then incredible firepower of the AK-47 under battle conditions. From 1949 to the days the M-16A2 came out, it was hands down, the best rifle in general issue.
The AK-47 is a LOT older than the M-16, and part of the revolution that the M-16 finished in firearms design. The modernized Kalashnikov has been shown to perform to equal standard in general accuracy (4 MOA at 100 meters, or better) and thusly, it beats the M-16 overall, but the AK-108 is part of the 'old' regime of the Soviets, even though Kalashnikov designed and built it recently. So, the chances it might get adopted are slim, outside of Britain, that is, where British soldiers are looking at it with much interest after the gross failure (despite HK's best efforts to make the thing a decent weapon) of the L-85. The whole system was a disaster, as I recall.