Consolidating Features

[BAC]

I recently had a discussion with my dad about how equipment is selected amidst competitors for government contracts, and as always we got to talking about the quality of what makes the cut. As it pertains to rifles, it occurred to me that while most people say things like "our soldiers should get the very best", I don't actually know what the "very best" is. The most relevant example to this site, what would "the best" AR-15 actually look like?

A lot of different things come to mind. Bolt upgrades like KAC's E3 bolt design and JP's bolt material. Barrel upgrades like the ABS carbon fiber barrel treatments, or barrel materials like Lw50 or stellite. FailZero's EXO finish probably fits in there somewhere. There are others (Geissele SSA triggers, Tubb CS recoil springs, comfortable aftermarket grips from Ergo, Magpul, and Stark), but I think you get the idea. While a lot of these can come together into one rifle, some design enhancements simply can't.

Does anyone know what it would take to consolidate the different features into one rifle (strategic business partnerships, perhaps)? Would the overall performance and service life of such rifle prove cost-effective? Maybe most importantly, given the obvious increase in initial expense, would the "very best" AR-15 be viable for military use in the grand scheme of acquisition, fielding, maintenance, and institutionalized abuse of the weapon?



-B

[NMBigfoot02]

My guess is that such a rifle would be highly cost prohibitive compared to the benefits it would generate.

Also, what might be the "best" rifle depends on it's intended use. A desired set of features on a precision rifle might not be the best for a general use rifle.

The perfect is the enemy of the good...

[orionz06]

Consideration needs to be made for how much better something is. miracle treatment lubrications may be good, but they may also prevent the operator from taking his weapon apart frequently enough. One part of the current design that, from an engineering standpoint, is it gets dirty enough to merit a close inspection. Does that mean a dirty gun is better, no.

Also to be considered is the point of diminishing returns. For other large purchases, I have created a weighted scale of features important to me, and then evaluated the top 3 choices, and I dont think I would weight some of the mentioned features highly enough to justify their price.