M16

The M16 is the American designation for the AR-15, designed by the Armalite Corporation in 1957. It was first put into service in 1963, becoming the standard U.S. assault rifle by 1969, replacing the M14 rifle. The standard M16 fires the 5.56x45mm NATO round, but can be modified to fire different cartridges with the addition of a new barrel, bolt, and sometimes firing pin. With its long barrel, the rifle can be very accurate at anywhere up to 550 yards for a standard issue rifle, and even longer for specialized variants with heavier barrels such as the MK12. The M16 has a rate of fire of around 700-950 rounds per minute, depending on the model. The M16A2 and A4 variants fire in three-round burst or semi-automatic, while the original M16A1 and A3 variants fire fully-automatic or semi-automatic. Variants of the M16 rifles have been featured throughout the Battlefield series.

M16
In Battlefield Vietnam, the M16 is one of the standard issue assault rifles for the American and South Vietnamese factions. It is issued to the Assault kit. It is functionally similar to the CAR-15. It has medium damage, medium recoil, average spread and a high rate of fire. It can kill in up to four-five shots. In close-quarters, it can be very effective due to its high power. It is limited by a small 20 round magazine and a relatively long reload.

M16 Sniper
The M16 Sniper is also available for all American and South Vietnamese divisions. It is issued to the Scout kit. Like stated in its name, it is essentially an M16 with a x6 zoom scope, meant for medium range engagements. It holds the same characteristics of the regular M16, only being limited to semi-automatic fire. It should be noted that it still has the same accuracy, meaning that outside of medium range its spread can throw off one's aim. The user of this rifle will also only have two spare magazines instead of the normal six of its non-scoped counterpart.

Battlefield 2
The United States Marine Corps in Battlefield 2 uses the M16A2 as its primary weapon for the Assault and Medic kits. It fires in three-round bursts, with each burst doing a moderate amount of damage. The M16A2 included in Assault kits comes with an M203 grenade launcher, while the M16 used by the Medic has no attachments at all. The Assault kit's M16A2 will have six plus one magazines, while the Medic kit's has four plus one magazines.

Battlefield 2: Special Forces
In Battlefield 2: Special Forces, the M16A2 is issued to the United States Navy SEALs Medic kit.

Battlefield: Bad Company
In Battlefield: Bad Companys singleplayer campaign, the M16' can be taken from fallen Legionnaire Mercenaries in the final assault on Serdar's palace, in the mission Par for the Course, and as a collectible on Crash and Grab.

In multiplayer, the M16 is an unlockable issued to the Assault kit. The M16 is fully automatic and has a 50-round magazine with 150 rounds in reserve, like all assault rifles in the game. It has a low rate of fire compared to other assault rifles, but this is balanced by high damage and accuracy. Even with its low rate of fire, its high damage can best most automatic weapons in close quarters. It also has the default M203, which has a faster reload than the GP-30 or XM320 grenade launchers.

There is an "M16 Trophy" awarded once a player achieves six kills with the M16 in a round. This trophy is usually accompanied by the 'Assault Rifle Efficiency' trophy when awarded.

M16
In Battlefield Heroes, the M16 was released as part of the Battlefield Heroes Gets Bad Company event. Its stats in the Battlefield Heroes weapon store say that it has a high rate of fire, short range and a 45-round magazine. It is the equivalent of the National Army AK-74, and costs 1120BF to buy (1200 for National players).

Tier 1 M16
A second M16 was released as part of the Tier 1 event, named as the Tier 1 M16. This new M16 has a unusable scope, a 30 round magazine, a low rate of fire and a long effective range. The Tier 1 M16 costs 1200BF to buy for an unlimited duration, and is only available to the Royal Army.

Scoped SOF M16
As a part of the Battlefield Heroes Christmas event, the SOF M16 was released on December 2, 2010 for purchase through the in-game store. It features a winter camouflaged M16 with a usable scope.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2
"The American made M16A2 three round burst assault rifle carries a 30 round magazine and was designed to optimize ammunition conservation, shot accuracy and fire power."

- In-game description.

M16A2
Only available in Battlefield: Bad Company 2s multiplayer, the M16A2' is the 7th and last assault rifle issued to the Assault kit requiring 47000 points to unlock. It has 30 round magazine size, a three-round burst fire mode, an M203 and can also accept a Red Dot Sight or a 4X Rifle Scope, like all kit specific weapons in Bad Company 2. Although being limited to burst fire, its fire rate is quite high. Due to its stopping power and accuracy it can be very effective against other assault rifles and even SMGs at medium to close range. The ability to 'pulse' the weapon's trigger gives the M16A2 an edge by increasing the weapon's fire rate.

M16A2 SA
The M16A2 SA is also available to those who have purchased the SPECACT DLC. It is the M16A2 customized with Woodland, Desert or Arctic camouflage depending on the environment the player is in. The M16A2 SA is obtainable on XBL (Xbox Live) for 160MS points, through Dr. Pepper as a promotion, or purchase through the PlayStation Store (PS3) or the EA Store (PC). A player using this weapon can, optionally, also be equipped with a special uniform.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam
"The M16A1 was introduced during the Vietnam War as a replacement for the M14 rifle. It has since then been the primary rifle of the US Army and many other nations"

- In-game description

In Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam, the M16 (killfeed) or the M16A1/M16 A1 (menu, killcam, kit selection screen) is issued to the Assault kit. It has an automatic fire mode. Compared to other assault rifles, it has the highest rate of fire, the lowest damage, the longest reload time, and the smallest hipfire spread.

Battlefield Play4Free
In Battlefield Play4Free, the M16A2 is a purchasable weapon for the Assault Kit. It fires in a three-round burst mode and has very high accuracy, allowing it to kill in two-three bursts at most ranges. However, the three-round burst configuration reduces the overall rate of fire, and can thus come off worse in a fight with fully automatic weapons.

Battlefield 3
The M16 family once again appears in Battlefield 3, this time as two separate weapons; the M16A3 which is fully automatic and the M16A4 which is three-round burst .

Singleplayer
The M16A3 appears in most levels where the USMC is present. It is mostly found without attachments.

Co-op
The M16A3 is the primary weapon for the 1st player in Operation Exodus (the other player has a M249 SAW) with an M320 and Holographic Sight.

Multiplayer
The M16A3 is the standard assault rifle of the United States Marine Corps' Assault kit in Battlefield 3, filling in the same role as the AK-74M, which is the Russian Ground Forces' starting assault rifle, and being functionally similar as well. It can later be unlocked for the Russian Ground Forces with 220,000 Assault points.

The M16A3 has decent damage, very low amounts of recoil and good overall performance. Compared to the AK-74M, the M16A3's iron sights are less open, making it slightly harder to aim, but fires much faster and its reload times are considerably faster (empty or loaded). Also, when fitted with an optical sight, the front iron sights are still visible on the weapon, but only with sights that don't zoom your aim, such as the Red Dot Sight, will you see the front sight while aiming with an optic. This also applies to the burst-fire variant, as well as the M4A1 and its burst-fire counterpart.

M16A4
The M16A4 is the first burst-fire weapon unlocked. It is available for both factions at 89,000 Assault points and is incapable of fully automatic fire.

The M16A4 differs from the M16A3 in a few notable ways, the foremost feature being its burst, semi-auto fire selector unlike the M16A3 which has a full auto, semi auto fire selector. As of patch 1.04, it's stats differ from the M16A3. The M16A4  has only half the spread of the The M16A3 when aiming down sights, making it much more viable as a long range weapon. It also has significantly less horizontal recoil. The trade-off is a small increase in vertical recoil.

The M16A4 also possesses the unique feature of sharing unlocks with the M16A3. Any kills by the M16A3 or M16A4 total together so any unlocks received for the M16A3 will immediately be available to use on the M16A4 and vice versa.

Trivia

 * In Battlefield Vietnam and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam the M16 has some rust.
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company, the M16 and the M416 have very similar, if not identical, reload animations.
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the M16 is the only assault rifle in the game that is reloaded by pulling the charging handle back.
 * A slight difference in the M16's reload animation in the Bad Company series is that in the first game, the player hits the charging handle with the side of his hand after pulling it. In the second game, this doesn't happen.
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, when the M16 is fired, the ejected casings spawn just next to the gun, instead of coming out the ejector port.
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam, the M16 has far different iron sights from those of the base game's M16, and more so closely resemble the iron sights of the M16 from Medal of Honor, whose multiplayer was also developed by DICE.
 * The M16 in Battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam also has a decal on the lower receiver magazine well that is found on the Medal of Honor M4A1 Veteran Version in the exact same place.
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam, the M16 has a similar third-person firing sound to the M16 from Battlefield Heroes.
 * In Bad Company 2: Vietnam the M16 has a 20 round magazine but fires 30 rounds.
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam, the M16 has a soldier's dog tag tied around the receiver of the weapon.
 * In Battlefield Play4Free the meshes and textures for the M16A2 are a direct copy from Battlefield: Bad Company 2, this is due to the M16A2 being one of the first weapons in the game's development, so the developers didn't take out the unusable M203 grenade launcher, like they did (and even made new meshes for these weapons later on) for the AEK-971's GP-30 and the StG.77 AUG's M203.
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company 2 it is one of two guns that fire in three round burst, the other being the M93 Raffica.
 * In Battlefield Vietnam, the damage system file for the automatic M16 is almost identical to that of the Thompson submachinegun from Battlefield 1942, including its title being "Thomson".
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company 2 it is possible to fire one or even two rounds if the player switches in the middle of the firing animation. The same goes for the M93R.
 * In Battlefield 3, instead of pulling the charging handle like in the previous games, the player instead hits the bolt release with the palm of his hand after an empty magazine reload.
 * In the earlier stages of Battlefield 3 the player pulled the charging handle of the M16A3 and A4 this can be seen in the Fault Line Trailers.
 * The M16 in some form has appeared in almost every Battlefield to date except 1942, 2142, and 1943.
 * In Battlefield 3, the M16A3 and the M16A4 can use an attachment unlocked with either gun, sharing it. The only other weapons in the game that can do the same are the M4A1 and M4.


 * The M16A2 in Bad Company 2 is anachronistic as the M16A4 replaced the M16A2 in 2004.
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield: Bad Company 2, when the M16's grenade launcher is fired, the player model does not have his finger on the trigger of the M203, in both third, and first person, this is the same with the M416.

Videos
Video:BFV M16 footage|Gameplay with the M16 in Battlefield Vietnam, on the map Landing Zone Albany Video:BFV_M16_w_scope|Game play of the M16 with scope on Operation Irving in Battlefield Vietnam Video:BF2 M16A2|An overview of the M16A2 in Battlefield 2. Video:M16A2|Gameplay with the M16A2 in Battlefield : Bad Company 2 at Atacama Desert in Conquest mode Video:M16|Gameplay with the M16 in Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam at Operation Hastings, Cao Son Temple and Hill 137 in Conquest mode Video:Battlefield 3 - M16A4 Assault Rifle - Medic|Gameplay with the M16A4 in Battlefield 3 Video:Battlefield_3_The_M16A3|How the attachements affect the M16A3's handling