Two variants of the M16 are featured in Battlefield Vietnam, the M16 and M16 with Scope.
M16[]
"Following the Korean War, the U.S. saw a need to update the assault rifle. The AR-15 design won out over other weapons being evaluated and came to the battlefield as the M-16. The M-16 was both accurate and devastating. It was a design that focused on accuracy and light weight. A sniper version of the gun was also evaluated by the Army, which eventually chose the M21. Despite its abilities, early M-16s were despised by soldiers for their lack of reliability. The gun was prone to jamming at the most inopportune times. Revisions were made to increase reliability, making the M-16 a good assault weapon. None the less, the M-16 never lost its poor reputation"
The M16 is one of the standard issue assault rifles for the US Army, USMC and ARVN factions. It is issued to the Assault kit. It is functionally similar to the CAR-15. It has medium damage, medium recoil, average spread and a high rate of fire. It can kill in up to four-five shots. In close-quarters, it can be very effective due to its high power. It is limited by a small 20 round magazine and a relatively long reload.
The M16 with Scope is also available for all American and South Vietnamese divisions. It is issued to the Scout kit. It is essentially an M16 with a x6 zoom scope, meant for medium range engagements. It holds the same characteristics of the regular M16, only being limited to semi-automatic fire. It should be noted that it still has the same accuracy, meaning that outside of medium range its spread can throw off one's aim. The user of this rifle will also only have two spare magazines instead of the normal six of its non-scoped counterpart.
Because Battlefield Vietnam features different loadouts for each faction, this list may not be specific enough. Please see each faction's respective page for information on individual weapon kits and loadouts.
The damage system file for the automatic M16 is almost identical to that of the Thompson submachine gun from Battlefield 1942, including its title being "Thomson", due to the reusing of files from 1942.
