AAI ACR (Advanced Combat Rifle)

History

The AAI ACR (Advanced Combat Rifle) was an experimental platform for the U.S. Army's ACR program in the 1980s. The plan was carried out in three main phases, starting with the first phase in February 1986. Together with Ares, Colt, Heckler & Koch, McDonnell Douglas and Steyr-Mannlicher, AAI was responsible for developing the successor to the famous but limited M16 assault rifle. The overall goal of the program was to find a weapon system with a higher "first hit" probability - the result of an attempt to specifically improve the M16A2 model.

Only AAI, Colt, H&K and Steyr participated in the third phase of the program.

The AAI submission turned out to be an improved form of their earlier arrow rifle, chambered for the 5.56x45mm Sabott cartridge (1.6x41.27mm for the arrow). The arrow-shaped lugs reduce recoil, but the muzzle explodes and the noise level when the gun fires is so high that the company was forced to add a flash suppressor/silencer to the business end of the gun.

The three-shot function is the standard and only shooting mode, assuming that the internal composition of the weapon has a three-chamber breech unit, which can fire three shots in a row, thereby increasing the probability of the first shot.

One of the main drawbacks of the AAI submission is the chamber, which can accept regular 5.56x45mm NATO rounds, which, combined with the different gas settings for the gas operated breech, could have catastrophic consequences for both the weapon and the operator . So the magazine in question had to be proprietary to avoid loading the wrong type into the gun and the magazine evolved to accept only the expected cartridge. However, single-shot cartridges can still be chambered manually, which further exacerbates the problem.

Overall, this gun has a traditional look, more traditional than its competitors, and maintains very clean lines at the receiver. The detachable magazine is bent forward as usual and deployed in front of the trigger group and action. Standard iron sights are mounted above the receiver, but quick release optics are also supported.

The shoulder rest is solid and attached to the rear end of the weapon.

Prototypes were tested from 1989 to 1990, but none of the products shown fully met the requirement of 100% probability of pre-emption. The program ended in April 1990, paving the way for the subsequent Targeted Individual Combat Weapons program.

Again, the plan failed to find a successor to the M16 at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to US taxpayers.

Specification

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