HK416 and Operation Neptune Spear: the rifle tied to the bin Laden raid

Key points: HK416 Operation Neptune Spear

• Special operations units ran the M4 with short barrels, suppressors, full-auto fire and high round counts, pushing it past the envelope it was designed for, as former Delta operator Larry Vickers has described it.
• Around 2000 to 2001, Vickers and Delta's weapons development side worked with Heckler & Koch, which modified M4s with a different gas system; by Vickers' account the test guns ran very well.
• The rifle was first called the HKM4; Colt objected to the M4 name, so it became the HK416, the number nodding to the M4 and M16 it descends from.
• The core difference from a standard AR is a short-stroke gas piston, and Lujan names the trade-offs: extra weight, a high price, and modern ARs that have closed much of the gap since the early 2000s.
• Delta adopted the 416 and DEVGRU, known publicly as SEAL Team 6, became closely associated with it during the high operational tempo after 2001.
• The video retells Operation Neptune Spear in 2011: a Black Hawk's hard landing inside the Abbottabad compound, an assault of roughly 40 minutes, and the destruction of the damaged helicopter before exfil.
• Lujan says the 416's role in the raid rests on published accounts rather than confirmation, and admits the rifle on camera is an HK MR556, the civilian semi-auto counterpart.

About this Gun Review video

HK416 history from Lujan: how Delta Force's push to make the M4 survive short barrels, suppressors and heavy firing schedules led Heckler & Koch to a short-stroke gas piston rifle first called the HKM4, and how DEVGRU carried the 416 into Operation Neptune Spear, the 2011 bin Laden raid in Abbottabad. Lujan is candid that the rifle's part in the killing is reported, not confirmed, and that the rifle on camera is an HK MR556, the civilian semi-auto version.

Transcript: HK416 Operation Neptune