In the old days, polishing boots and cleaning rifles were how troops spent their quality time. Painting rocks and picking up cigarette butts, too.

That was the old days and today’s military is all about mission focus. Wrinkle free uniforms without ironing. No-polish boots. And, it’s worth mentioning, contractors serving food in many mess halls - not troops.

When we deployed to Iraq last year, we were issued “high-speed” off-the-shelf weapons cleaning kits for our M4 rifles. Still, dust and sand managed to sneak into our weapons everyday. A day on the range put carbon everywhere inside the weapon. Although cleaning weapons is an expected soldier task, is there a better way?

An article in Marine Corps Times - SF battalion wants H & K 416 tech- indicates that the Heckler and Koch has developed (in cooperation with a US special operations unit) a modified upper receiver for the M4 that reduces fouling from weapon use. In the long run, this technology could make weapon cleaning and reliability issues a thing of the past.

It’s not just about time savings. When I read Sean Naylor’s book, “Not a Good Day to Die,” the part that stuck in my mind was when two Navy SEALS on the same mountain top had their weapons jam back-to-back. Who knows whether this new technology could make dirt, carbon, and sand related jams a thing of the past?