White Rockets, Tools of the trade
This is the second part of my rant on “White Rockets”, or those things that we designed to do two or more things acceptably well and accomplish neither intention. Since this is the “tools of the trade” que, this is mostly about weapons, cartridges, etc. We have a few of those in the white rocket, ultimate generalist, excel at nothing, community- that qualify.
The AR 15.
While not actually a white rocket in the truest sense, the AR and its progeny, M16, M4, etc. are average arms that are not the killers that they are made out to be. I would suspect that if Vietnam would have never become a thing, and the Army would have confined its preparation to Eastern Europe, the AR would have never seen the light of day.
The rifle that the M16 replaced was heavy. Its ammunition was heavy. Everything about those rifles was heavy and required stout men to wield them. Honestly, this rifle (the M14 in 7.62 NATO) is a much more lethal killing instrument, and in the military sense over-kill for enemy combatants.
What the M16 did was to marginalize lethality because it was light. Light to carry, the ammunition was lighter so the Joe on the ground could carry much more rounds that he could 7.62, and in Vietnam, where we were not necessarily riding into battle on motorized horses, carrying about such a heavy rifle and kit around in the jungle was too much. We needed a lighter rifle, we got one.
Fast forward a few years, when the A2 variant was adopted. Same light rounds, same light kit, but the rifle itself was heavy. Now we have a heavy rifle that doesn’t subdue combatants as well as heavy rifle should. It fared poorly in Somalia, where the determined and light bodied pirates in Mogadishu took several rounds apiece before they were subdued. The Big Gun, little bullet, well- that didn’t work out that well. Those fellows could have used some over-kill in Somalia. I think that the M16A2 was and is the quintessential white rocket.
Critics of this platform politically site that the AR rifle is a “weapon of war.” Rather, it is a weapon of compromise, and its sole endearing feature to Joe is that it is light. Other than that, it is about useless. I am guessing that if you asked the Rangers in Somalia if on the eve of battle if they wished to swap the issued A2 for an M14, I would suppose the M14 line would have been a long one; likely a looooooooooong one.
9mm Parabellum.
I do not intend to cast unwanted criticisms towards the world’s most celebrated service cartridge. It came into being because it was the most powerful handgun round that could be handled by the metallurgy at the time (1906), and the pistol made for it- which was quite a piece. Although, today, 116 years after its introduction, adoption of this cartridge by the military and/ or police it is the product of a philosophy that states the full evil of compromise politics; not being ideal but at least defendable as good enough.
I have no doubt that it is ideally suited for service carry, both for the militaries around the world, and the FBI. It is efficient, decently powerful, gentle, but its adoption is the product of compromise. It is a generalist, not a specialist.
The FBI is compromising especially. Understanding how decisions are made, as we explained in the other piece, the FBI considered the testing protocol that guaranteed the 9mm will be adopted. The one’s we know have to do with performance in ballistic gelatin- the last three entailed shooting through dry wall, plate glass, and sheet metal. A 45 will not do this, and a 9mm will- as any narrower cartridge outperforms a larger caliber cartridge generally when barriers of this type are included in the testing. An old soviet round, the 7.62 x 25- would have blown the 9mm to pieces if penetration through barriers was the alpha and omega; and the screening criteria allowed that deeply penetrating round to be considered.
Within this criterion, the populace has seen this as a godsend- speaking loquaciously that the new developments in bullet technology have made the 9mm defensive cartridge equivalent to the larger caliber handgun rounds. In wondering out loud- why does this new technology only benefit the 9mm, and not the other calibers? I wonder this, because the other calibers, especially the heavier ones, do benefit and are better choices now than they were prior to this development.
A hollow point bullet will expand about a third when it is tested in gelatin, maybe slightly more if it is a higher energy cartridge (10mm, 357 SIG) so one that starts at .355 caliber expanded to .530 or so is a very good showing. Comparatively, with this 33% (actually my research shows 32%) increase, a 45 ACP expands to about .64 inches, which by my observations is better for defensive purposes.
Ballistic comparisons will always favor the larger bullet unless some criteria is placed upon the testing- in this case the defeat of barriers, and performance in gelatin afterwards. While I acknowledge that defeat of barriers is reasonable for the FBI, I cannot envision but very few circumstances where I will be required to defense myself by shooting through drywall, plate glass, or a car door.
So, I do not argue with their adoption, and would have done the same if I was the director of the FBI- but I see very limited, if nonexistent necessity in shooting through a barrier when my own defensive needs are in question. So, my evaluation criteria are narrower than the FBIs.
Knowing that the FBI has been down this road before in the 80s, and the decision that came from that time was the Smith and Wesson 1076 in 10mm, which is likely the most powerful gun/round that a grown man can still “race”- so they arrived at this choice within truly martial criterion. Where it went south for them was, they added so many additions to the gun’s design- about what the gun should be, features added, etc.- that half the guns did not work. The smaller in stature agents could not handle the recoil, as well. So, the committee met again, “watered down” and wrecked the wonderful cartridge into what turned what was supposed to be a thoroughbred into a legitimately bureaucratic white rocket. Design by committee.
It is little wonder that they chose the 9mm, as it was not the best, certainly not as good as the 10, but the least objectionable. This by itself makes this little cartridge that could, a white rocket.
It is not my intention to sling mud on those decisions that the Army or the FBI has used in selecting these choices, actually in my view they are within that spirit of compromise, the best selections. For general use, they are useful, but clearly not ideal. In the grand scheme of things, they would still be my choice for these applications- as it is the most defensible.