Change in some areas, can be a good thing. The problem is vetting the reliability and purpose in it's use with the M16FOW. Since the platform wasn't designed with that feature in mind, or thoroughly tested as other known platforms specifically designed for it, nothing is standardized. Similar to the slap on piston kits or various piston AR manufacturers of lesser quality. You don't know what you're getting and doesn't improve the overall design in any significant way. If it did, the military as well as Colt, DD, KAC and other quality manufacturers would have made the leap to side charging handles on the M16FOW by now, since it's been around for almost 50 years. It becomes a solution in search of a problem. Hence the reason I deemed it a gimmick. If a side charging handle is a desired feature, I'd stick to the proven platforms for which it was designed for, AK, FN SCAR, FAL, etc...

