The AR-180 was a cool gun. Better that the AR-15, IMO.
It certainly could have been / should have been. It lacked the development of the AR15 so it always came in last in tests. When tested against the AR15/M16 the 15/16 was a rather mature design, and the 180 in its infancy. There was nothing wrong with the design, which is quite evident by all the direct copies of it today (SA80, SAR80, XM8, G36, etc), but it never got the opportunity to work out the issues related to materials and manufacturing. In tests it was always parts breakage that stopped the 180, nothing related to the design. Same thing happened to the M16.
Yep, true.
PS About fifteen or so years ago, my girlfriend and I were house guests of a very wealthy man and his family. He was not only extremely wealthy, but he was a survivalist. He and his family owned a mountain top mansion in Oregon.
Unbelievable compound/estate home. He had a helicopter and heliport on the property. He had a collection of vintage Corvettes in a huge garage. All sorts of live in help. I think he owned the whole mountain, because his was the only house on it, with a single private road going up the mountain to his compound on the top plateau. Electronic security gate at the bottom.
Believe me, I know it sounds like I'm writing fiction, but I'm not embellishing. This guy happened to go to the same Church as my girlfriend at the time.
Anyway, we go into his home and we're talking about guns, and tactical carbines. He goes over to a wall and flips a switch. A panel in the wall slides open and there's a row of ten or fifteen AR-180s. Then we went down to the basement level where he had a bomb shelter/safe room. More guns, cases of ammo, box after box (fifteen or twenty) of brand new Beretta 92s. Food, water, etc..
Relating the story, I know it sounds like a fourteen year old kid made it all up, but I can't help it. It's the God's honest truth, with details as accurate as I can remember. That was one weird experience. Pretty cool, though. I'll never forget the sight of all those AR-180s lined up in a hidden wall compartment.