Am I missing something or is the "gas piston upper" a Daewoo?  Haven't the Koreans got this system pretty worked out by now?  Is the New and Improved AR really just a daewoo that accepts AR15 handguards?  Please enlighten me if I am wrong.

Although the Daewoo looks very much like an AR-15, it is not.  The internals and operating systems are not compatible.

Quoted: Am I missing something or is the "gas piston upper" a Daewoo?  Haven't the Koreans got this system pretty worked out by now?  Is the New and Improved AR really just a daewoo that accepts AR15 handguards?  Please enlighten me if I am wrong.

Same caliber.
Same magazines.
More or less the same controls.
Both gas piston operated.


But beyond that, absolutely not.  Even though they are both gas piston operated the Daewoo system is different from any of the piston AR systems.  While the Daewoo is similar to the AR the other is still an AR and still works with pretty much any AR accessory.  And the gas piston systems are only in the upper with absolutely no changes to the lower.  For example, you can swap the gas piston upper for a pistol caliber upper for use at indoor ranges, or a varmint/target upper for long range shooting or a big-bore upper for hunting deer or wild boar.  You can't do any of that with a Daewoo.  

I understand what you are saying.  I guess what I was looking at is the seeming "newness" of the gas piston .223 as the most reliable combat weapon of this type.  Im fueled by the episode of "futureweapons" I saw last night that portrayed the HK version of the gas piston m4.  Is the basic weapon itself, not the ability to add on/exchange uppers, any more reliable than the Daewoo?  

Quoted: I understand what you are saying.  I guess what I was looking at is the seeming "newness" of the gas piston .223 as the most reliable combat weapon of this type.  Im fueled by the episode of "futureweapons" I saw last night that portrayed the HK version of the gas piston m4.

I guess you haven't noticed that shows like that tend to hype whatever they're talking about...

Is the basic weapon itself, not the ability to add on/exchange uppers, any more reliable than the Daewoo?

How broad is your knowldge of small arms?  There is absolutely nothing new about piston operated rifles that fire the .223/5.56 round.  The AR uses direct gas and the early HK rifles use the delayed roller system, but every other .223 rifle I can think of uses some form of gas piston.  AR-180, Mini-14, AUG, Galil, Sig, the list goes on.  The AR is better than all of those other rifles because of the ergonomics and the ability to customize it to match whatever requirements you may have.  Gas piston uppers are simply another option for an excellent platform.

Any AR made from quality parts and properly maintained will be completely reliable, at least as reliable as anything else made by human hands.  The advantage of a gas piston system is reliability with short barrels and sound suppressors.  If you're just running a normal 16" or 20" AR then there's no reason to pay the money for a gas piston system.