Oh :(
Is that the only way to learn what is REALLY wrong or right with a piece of military equipment? Using it in combat?
God I hope not
Being a civilian, i dont know.
No it is not the only way, but often it happens when there is a need to get an item fielded to the troops, when waiting for extensive peacetime schedule testing is not an option during a war. But the biggest problem was that the soldiers and their leaders were NOT told that the M-16 needed much attention to cleaning than the M-14 did. Thus they treated the M-16 like their “tried and true M-14” and the problems occurred. Remember that the M-14 was based upon the M-1 Garand, that was fielded in 1939-40 to the Army, thus it had already gone through combat in WWII and Korea, thus 2 decades of use and finding out/solving problems with it.