Who uses the M16 / M4 / AR-15 / C7 / C8
The M16 has been in service for over 40 years and I did some research to see which governments now use it. I decided to create a map showing who uses the M16/M4, AR-15 (civilian version)and the C7/ C8 (Canadian version).
This is what I came up with (click the image to increase the size)
Some of the countries, such as the UK, only use M16/M4/AR-15/C7/C8 rifles for their special forces. Presumably because the AR-15 platform has no end of customizations available.
Here is a complete list of countries (from the Colt website. The above map is more detailed than the Colt map):
Argentina, Australia, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Botswana, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, East Timor, Estonia, Fiji, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq ,Ireland, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Jamaica, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Maldives, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Laos, Nigeria, Netherlands, Oman,Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vietnam and Venezuela.
UPDATE
Added Georgia, who are adopting the M4, and Afghanistan, who have been given C7 rifles.
it’s being used in several east european special forces.
uzim16, can you post links to webpages to verify this?
Ireland don’t use them either,we use the styer aug. The s.f may have a couple……
I visited the colt website and it says that Spain doesnt use any of them,can you say me if Spain really use them?
I think India bought a few AR-15′s waaaaay back when it was still in trials in the U.S, as memory serves me right. I also think Malaysia bought some around the same time.
I think India and Malaysia were the first countries to actually buy AR-15s. Does anybody have any further evidence ? I think mine was from Rifles of the World.
Thanks Lorenzo, thats very interesting. I may do a post on the AMD
As fas as I know, the M16 variants are used only in very few quantities by special forces in the French army, like other “sterile” weapons from Germany or Swiss.
Anectodally, I think French police still use the Ruger AMD (a full-auto Mini-14 bought in the eighties to upgrade from century-old carbines), but it’s no more used as a primary weapon, being replaced by various SMG, like the Beretta PM12S.
More anectodally, Monaco use the M16A2 in its “armed forces”.
They have purchased M16s from Colt!
India dosent use the M16