>>65555522
In civilian ownership the semiauto rifles were named SP1 by Colt
After the 1990s AWB expired and the patent rights left Colt, the original design (from ArmaLite) designation came back into common use among civilians, and also post-1980s the M4 carbine and other derivatives of the M16 had arrived so you couldn't any longer use that as a generic name or reference.

People are retarded.
The ironic part is that it's neither an AR-15 nor an M16.

Called AR-15 from the very beginning, as a select fire rifle
When adopted by the US military given the internal designation M16
Later on, a civilian semi-auto-only variant gets released, the SP-1
AR-15 encompasses all variants of the base design, although in common parlance today people often use it to refer to civilian variants only

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ben from the night of the living dead called it m16

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>Armalite was a division of Fairchild Aircraft
>Armalite was tasked with exploring the use of aerospace materials like aluminum and synthetics for making small arms
>both civilian and commercial market small arms, and also military and police small arms
>very fresh concept at the time
>each weapon which Armalite designed had a designation
>starting with AR (standing for Armalite), and a number
>there were many of these
>for instance AR5, a small and lightweight take-down .22 Hornet bolt-action rifle (never mass produced)
>or AR7, a small and lightweight take-down .22LR semi-automatic rifle (entered commercial production and is still made today)
>the AR14 was a semi-automatic skeet shooting shotgun with an aluminum receiver

Pausing for breath.
>Eugene Stoner was one of the people working at Armalite
>he designs a number of weapons there
>his AR10 is of note, which is the first weapon in what would eventually become the M16
>think a less refined M16, but bigger and chambered for 7.62mm NATO
>gets shopped around a lot in the western world, but sees very limited success
>Bob Fremont and Jim Sullivan are two other dudes working at Armalite
>they decide that they'll make a scaled down version of Stoner's AR10, chambered for .223 Remington
>this is Armalite's 15th small arm, thus this is the AR15
>the AR15 starts getting shopped around together with the AR10 in demonstrations
>the AR15 gets a LOT of really good reception
>Armalite is finally seeing some more sales with this design, because it's so lightweight and it has no real recoil
>buuut it's still not really enough, so Fairchild decide to cut their losses
>thus they sell the AR10 and AR15 designs to Colt

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And then:
>DARPA conducts a series of technology tests, one of these is Project A.G.I.L.E.
>this includes live combat testing by American units of 1000 Colt AR15 rifles in South East Asia
>American grunts fucking LOVE this rifle, it's so lightweight, accurate, and easy to shoot
>there's room for improvement, but there's strong consensus that it's mostly better than the M14
>.223 Remington does basically as good tissue damage as 7.62mm NATO but for much less weight and recoil
>the M14, meanwhile, has lagged horribly in developing production, the rifles have been basically just trickling out for years and years

Finally:
>Secretary of Defense, Robert MacNamara, decides that this shit is untenable
>the U.S Army needs new rifles, the M14 is struggling to happen, and they need to look at something to fill in the gap
>DARPA has shown that the AR15 is a really good rifle
>the Airforce already even bought AR15s to replace their old M2 Carbines
>and Colt is ready to start mass production right now
>so the U.S Army gets forced to test it out, against their will
>testing shows that, yeah, it actually is pretty good
>some changes are made, some good, some which turn out to be bad
>and the AR15 gets adopted as the M16

>>65555955
>they decide that they'll make a scaled down version of Stoner's AR10, chambered for .223 Remington
Not to accuse you of claiming this, but one thing that alot of people miss is that Armalite was one of several firms specifically requested by the Army to provide .22 caliber prototypes for evaluation. The AR-15 got quite a warm reception by Army testing at this stage, but for various reasons largely related to politics both domestic and international (we had literally just adopted the M14 and pushed 7.62x51 on NATO) it was passed over.
>Armalite is finally seeing some more sales with this design, because it's so lightweight and it has no real recoil
>buuut it's still not really enough, so Fairchild decide to cut their losses thus they sell the AR10 and AR15 designs to Colt
I believe these events are backwards, to my knowledge the AR-15 was sold to Colt, at which point Colt was managing small scale sales to various countries
>Secretary of Defense, Robert MacNamara, decides that this shit is untenable
>the U.S Army needs new rifles, the M14 is struggling to happen, and they need to look at something to fill in the gap
>the AR15 gets adopted as the M16
At this point I believe most of the M14 producers had actually managed to work out the kinks in their production and it had ramped up. While there was definitely evidence to suggest the AR-15 was better than the M14, what McNamara really got sold on was Colts claims that they could produce these rifles cheaper and that they were essentially fully developed. Neither of these were really true, but the AR-15 wasn't being seen as a replacement for the M14 but rather a stopgap weapon to use for a few years while the SPIW program wrapped up with an anticipated delivery in 1965.

>>65555522
Because you're a retarded noguns foreigner.

>>65556251
Thank you, you're actually correct on these.