Army issues instructions for painting M-4, M-16 individual weapon systems

By C. Todd Lopez
ARNEWS

	Photo by C. Todd Lopez/ARNEWS Colonel Douglas A. Tamilio, project manager for Soldier Weapons, Program Executive Office Soldier, holds an M-16 rifle that has been taped up in preparation for applying camouflage spray paint.

WASHINGTON — Soldiers already have uniforms that blend them into their surroundings. Now there are instructions on how to have a weapon that blends in too.
In April, the Army released instructions on how Soldiers can apply spray paint to their M-4 or M-16 rifle, without decreasing the effectiveness of either the weapon or the installed optics.

“The Army has always had techniques to camouflage the Soldier ... we have techniques for the Soldier and the equipment,” said Col. Douglas A. Tamilio, project manager for Soldier Weapons, Program Executive Office Soldier. “We found in Iraq and Afghanistan that Soldiers were starting to paint their weapons. It wasn’t really approved or disapproved for them to do that.”

Tamilio said the Army worked with the Army Tank-Automotive and Armament Command as well as the Army Research, Development and Engineering Center to put together the instructions.
The resulting document, “Maintenance Information Message 10-040,” is titled “Camouflaging Specific Small Arms.” It focuses on where to apply tape to protect sensitive areas, what areas should not be painted, and what kind of paint to use.

Tamilio said the instruction is not permission for a Soldier to paint his weapon. Permission, he said, comes from a unit commander. The instruction is simply a guide on how to proceed if a commander gives that permission.

The full MIM 10-040 instruction is available online at https://aeps2.ria.army.mil/commodity/mam/tacom_wn/mim10-040.html.