Rifles
The standard rifles in use with all branches of the military are the Colt M16 and M4 rifles, based on a design first adopted in 1961 from Eugene Stoner's AR-15 design. The weapon fires a 5.56x45mm NATO round from a 30-round magazine; the weapons can also have a 40mm grenade launcher or bayonet attached to them; since the early 2000s, the new M16A4 and M4A1 rifles have integrated rail systems on their stocks that allow for the attachment of laser sights, scopes, forward grips, and tactical lights. While the US was the first nation to adopt the M16, over 15 other nations use the weapon today. Canada has license-produced the rifle since 1988, and the Canadian variant is in use with the Netherlands and Denmark.
The military also utilizes several other rifles for snipers and designated marksmen. The Springfield M14, initially adopted in 1957 as the standard service rifle, was relegated to secondary duties after the Vietnam War. During the 1980s, the M21 variant was created with the attachment of a scope for a designated marksman to use; the M25, which had a Kevlar stock, was adopted in the early 2000s. The M21 and M25 both saw use in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. More modern variants, the Mk14 and the M39 Enhanced Battle Rifle, were adopted by the US Army and Marine Corps respectively.
The Remington 700 bolt-action rifle, which fires a 7.62x51mm round like the M14, was first designed in 1966 and adopted at the same time by the Marine Corps as the M40A1 sniper rifle, fitted with a Unertl 10x magnification scope. The M40A1 was replaced by the M40A3 in 2001, and the M40A5 in 2008. The Army, which was slow to start its own sniper program, did not adopt the Remington 700 as the M24 until 1987. The US Air Force also utilizes the M24 Sniper Weapon System. The Army and Marine Corps began the process to replace the M40/24 rifles in 2012.
The Barrett M82A1 was first adopted in the late 1980s as the first .50-caliber sniper rifle, able to hit targets a mile away. The M107, a more modern version, was adopted in the early 2000s. The Barrett has been adopted by dozens of other nations because it is one of the few weapons available that can hit a target over a mile away. Due to its weight and size, the weapon is only used by snipers for certain missions.
Machine guns
The military uses three machine gun designs: the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, the M240, and the M2. The SAW fires the same ammunition as the M16, with a firing rate of 800 rounds per minute. The M249 was adopted in 1982 by the army, but didn't see widespread use with the military until 1989. The M240 is a 7.62mm medium machine gun first adopted in 1977 as a turret weapon for the army's tanks. It replaced the M60 as the military's infantry machine gun later in the 1990s, and currently serves in three variants: the B, G, and L. The B is the Marine Corps version, the G is the Army's, and the L is a titanium alloy weapon that is lighter than the other variants and began to see service with the Army in select units in 2015.
The M2 is a .50-caliber heavy machine gun, which was first designed at the end of World War One. An experimental variant was created in 1922 but was not very successful; the M2 was designed and issued in 1933, and has been in the US military arsenal since then, the longest serving firearm in US military history. The machine gun has seen action in every US conflict since World War Two, and has been adopted for service by over a hundred other nations. A new variant with a quick-change barrel was adopted in the mid-1980s; other than that, the design has remained the same. Due to its size and weight, it is usually mounted on vehicles or aircraft; in a ground unit, it takes three men to operate it.
Pistols
The Beretta 92FS, a 9mm pistol designed and manufactured in Italy starting in 1976, beat Glock and SIG-Sauer in a 1981 competition to select a replacement for the Colt 1911, a .45-caliber pistol that had been in service with the US since World War One. The pistol was adopted in 1985 as the M9; it had a troubled early service after Navy SEALs suffered injuries from the weapons' slides exploding after only a few hundred rounds. The weapons, initially made in Italy, contained the soft metal tellurium which has a low melting point. Manufacturing of the M9 moved to the US and tellurium was removed from the process. A new variant, the M9A1, was adopted in 2012 with a rail under the barrel for the attachment of a tactical light; in 2017, the US Army held a replacement competition and selected the SIG-Sauer P320 to replace the M9, starting in 2019.
The Colt M1911A1, first entered into service in World War One, was officially replaced by the M9 in 1985, but remained in use with Special Operations and some Marine units to certain extents. In 2012, the Marine Corps adopted a new model built by Springfield, which was used by Force Reconnaissance and military police units.
Starting in 2014, the Glock 19, a 9mm pistol design from Austria, began to replace the M9 and other handguns in use with Army Rangers and Green Berets; MARSOC followed in 2015 and Navy SEALs in 2016.
Some military police units in the Army and Air Force carry the M11, a version of the SIG P228. The US Coast Guard's standard sidearm is the .357 SIG P229, just like the Secret Service.
Other weapons
Most other weapons in use with the military are with Special Operations units, who utilize submachine guns like the German-made MP-5 and MP-7. These units often have a lot of leeway in what kind of weapons they carry, and sometimes even use the same weapons as their enemies.
Shotguns have been in use with the military since World War One; these days they are usually in use with security troops, or ground units who need them to breach doors or other obstacles. Today, the Mossberg 590, Remington 870, and Italian-made Benelli M1014 are in use with various units across all the branches.
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