Preferred qualities of an assault rifle

what qualities of an assault rifle do you prefer?

use a few examples of preferred or not so preferred assault rifles and ammunition and possibly add own ideas to what and how something should be improved.
if anyone got experience with gunsmithing then please post own idea of assault rifle if possible.

i personally favor cheap and reliable weapons because of low maintenance but that is of course depending on expected situation.

I want a light and accurate rifle.

Something light, reliable, accurate and has stopping power. And as cheap as possible of course

everone loves an ak!!! super reliable, decent firepower, cheapness, and ease of use.

if only you could combine a good old ak with a modern g-36...it would be unstapable.

light, acurate, powerfull, reliable, no more recoil then an m16 unless its at the expense of stopping power
easier to train a person whos never shot before on it with low recoil
a scope or red dot sight would be good also but that would add cost

well, i'm an infantryman, i think that i can anwser your question. First of all, the weapon has to be reliable, accurate and easy to manoeuver with (not too big) and there's also a second point, the weapon had to got a good "look" if the weapon is physically awful, it could change perception for the soldier carrying it. Maybe everyone who served in the military will agree with me. Yeah, BTW, the weapon must not be too light, feel like dirt, a good rifle must have a certain weight that the soldier carrying it have trust in it.

i wouldnt want any thing lighter then the M 16 it would feel cheep and unreliable that was my first impresion of the AR 15 i fired

Personally, I don't think anyone can judge which rifle is best unless they themselves have used it.

From artillery mans point of view, the best assault rifle would something that requires as minium attention as is possiple. It also needs to be suited for harsh conditions, cos belive it or not, most of the time in gungroup the rifles just lays around the ground (ofcourse they supposed to be on some sort of weoponstand, but mostly the whole groups guns where layed down over two sticks laying in muddy ground...) We usually didn't have much time to maintanance them so reability is important. If we suddenly neede those weapons, lets say like our fire position is under infantry attack those rifles must work well regardless our neglection towards them.

There isen't many rifles suitable to that kind of conditions, ecxept the thrustworhty Kalashnikovik, and more so the Finnish version of it, RK-62. Once during the drills we suddenly had to go and shoot whit our rifles and we just took them as they where, laying in a mud for almoust week...shootings went fine and after that i finaly started to clean the rifle and when opened it, there where lots of mud, dirt, wood chop and even complete Pine cone inside the gun...and it still was able to shoot...Now that gave me a neverending thust to finnish weopon manufacturing and the kalashnikoviks mechanism in general...i would never go to war whit any other rifle..ecxpecially whit those complex german ones...nore M-16...

My rifle would be:
Reliable, moderate weight, has a stock, preferably solid and if possible, can store some stuff, simple and low demand for maintenance, like the Type 81.

Accurate, low recoil, like the M-16.

It needs to be adaptable, select-fire(and if possible, feature bolt-action), fires both magazines and drums, grenades(at least under-launchers) and upgradable(suppressor, sights, laser, etc).

Caliber: either .22 or .3