I read a very good book a while back, Robert Kaplan’s “Imperial Grunts”, a very well written book and flattering to our military.
In it, an officer deployed in some Godforsaken part of the Horn of Africa was describing to the author the difference between an AK47 and an M16. A lot of stuff about the way they are manufactured and how that affects their accuracy. I kind of figured on that, but he made a point-even the way the magazines are constructed is very different and telling. An AK magazine must be removed with the hand by grasping it and pulling it so it doesn’t fall on the ground and get lost, while and M16 mag can be dropped out and a fresh one inserted without touching it. The officer (I think he was a USMC Major) opined that it highlighted the Soviet approach to soldiering...the magazine was more valuable than the life of the person firing the weapon...it was more important not to lose the magazine than it was to enable the soldier to reload faster.
I don’t know if this is true, but it was what the guy said...:)
What get's lost on threads like this about the virtues of this combat rifle or that round, is that the soldier and his rifle, combined with the training, makes for a complete weapons system.
We seem to accept this in more mechanized weaponry, but when the main component is flesh & blood we tend to forget.