Thoughts on the Aero M5E1 Enhancd upper?
An Aero upper will be good to go - they’ve been running good QC from what I’ve bought over the years. I’d use an Aero before a DPMS, but that’s my opinion more than any facts on the DPMS .308 parts I’ve used.
The Aero Enhanced limits your handguard choices to the Aero offerings only - but it’s a solid design, and rigid - which is what it sounds like you’re looking for.
If you go with the non-enhanced Aero, you’ll still be getting into having a large barrel nut to attach the hard guard to - you probably won’t save much weight, if any.
I’ll just say that building a “lightweight” M-5 rifle is generally harder than most expect - there’s a lot of fixed mass in the reviewers, BCG, and .308 sized barrel that can’t be shaved without a good investment in specialty parts.
