The AR-10 rifle, designed by the Eugene Stoner at the Armalite division of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corp, seen no significant success at the time it had been introduced, but it still had some historical significance since the AR-10 served as a basis for the further development of the much more successful AR-15 / M16 series rifles. Basically, earliest AR-15 prototypes were no more than a scaled-down AR-10. The AR-10 was intended for the US Army trials for a new battle rifle, to replace the venerable M1 Garand. AR-10, with the first prototype built in 1955, came too late for these trials, and was too unconventional for conservative minds in the US Army, and consequently lost the trials to the T44 rifle, which was adopted in the 1957 as the M14. The AR-10 was ready for mass production by the 1960, but very few were made in USA. A manufacturing license had been sold to the Dutch company Artillerie Inrichtingen. Only Sudan and the Portugal apparently bought some AR-10 rifles for their military, and the production of the AR-10 had been ceased in the early or mid-1960s, with only about 10 000 military AR-10 being ever made. Read the rest of this entry »

T65 assault rifle was developed at Taiwan state arsenal to replace obsolete 7,62mm M14 rifles of US origin. The T65 rifle closely resembles US-made M16A1 rifle and is probably made on US-supplied machinery, although the Taiwanese rifle has some differences in design and appearance. Reports on original T65 rifle suggested that it performed not satisfactory, so it was improved and became T65K2 (also sometimes referred to as T68). Later on, a T86 carbine was developed – it is very similar externally to US-made M4 carbine although it has piston-type gas action of T65. The last weapon in this line-up is T91 carbine, which can be described as T86 with carrying handle replaced by Picatinny-type accessory rail.

T65 assault rifle is gas operated, selective fired weapon. It uses M16-type two-part aluminum receiver and similar rotating bolt action, although gas system is different – it has short-stroke gas piston, located above the barrel and concealed within handguards. The T65 rifles replaced carrying handle of M16 pattern with rear sight block; otherwise it was similar to M16A1. Starting from T65K2 Taiwanese designers returned the carrying handle (removable on T91 carbine). T65 uses magazines compatible with M16 rifles. Read the rest of this entry »

The AICW (Advanced Infantry Combat Weapon) is a joint development of the Australian DSTO (Government operated Defence Science and Technology Organisation), and private companies Metal Storm and Tenix Defence. This development has been carried out since the turn of 21st century, closely following the concept of the American XM29 OICW system. Overall, AICW represents the modular weapon system that combines the 5.56mm rifle/carbine copmponent as a host (basic) platform with 40mm multi-shot grenade launcher (G/L) module and multi-purpose electro-optical sighting system, which can be used to fire either rifle or G/L component, and also can provide recon data to external “consumers” such as tactical computers.
The host rifle component of the AICW is the updated Australian-made F88 rifle, which is a license-built Steyr AUG. However, the basic F88 rifle has been extensively modified to accept other elements of the system – for example, receiver has been upgraded to receive the G/L module at the top, and the buttstock has been enlarged to accomodate G/L electronic fire contol module. Other changes include modification to the safety and trigger arrangements – AICW system has a single trigger for both weapon components (5.56 and 40mm), and a three position (safe – rifle – G/L) safety/selector switch at the side of the pistol grip. Read the rest of this entry »

IMBEL MD-97 family of rifles was developed on the basis of earlier IMBEL MD-2 rifles, with certain improvements in parts and overall size. The family consists of two basic models, the selectively-fired MD-97L rifle, which is intended for Brazilian Army’s Special Forces, and semi-automatic only MD-97LC carbine, which is intended for police use.

IMBEL MD-97 rifles feature gas operated action with short-stroke piston and rotary bolt locking. The trigger unit and folding or fixed buttstock are same as on earlier 7,62mm Fz MD963 rifles (Brazilian-made copies of Belgian FN FAL rifle). Both rifle and police carbine variants are available with either fixed or folding buttstocks; the military MD-97L also can be fitted with domestically-made 40mm underbarrel grenade launcher or bayonet. MD-97 rifles use M16-compatible magazines. Read the rest of this entry »

The Steyr AUG (Armee Universal Gewehr – Universal Army Rifle) had been in development since the late 1960s, as a replacement for venerable but obsolete Stg.58 (FN FAL) battle rifles for Austrian army. It was developed by the Austrian Steyr-Daimler-Puch company (now the Steyr-Mannlicher AG & Co KG) in close conjunction with Austrian Army. The major design is attributed to the three men – Horst Wesp, Karl Wagner and Karl Möser, who developed most of the rifle features. From the Austrian Office of Military Technology the project was supervised by the Colonel Walter Stoll. The new rifle has been adopted by the Austrian Army in 1977, as the Stg.77 (Assault rifle, model of 1977), and production began in 1978. Since then, the AUG gained serious popularity, being adopted by the armed forces of Australia, Austria, New Zealand, Oman, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Ireland and some others. It also was widely purchased by various security and law enforcement agencies worldwide, including the US Coastal Guard. The Steyr AUG can be considered as the most commercially successful bullpup assault rifle to date. Since the 1997, the Steyr-Mannlicher produced an updated version of the AUG, the AUG A2. Read the rest of this entry »

The Vepr (“wild boar” – Ukrainian language) has been announced in 2003 as a new Ukrainian-designed assault rifle. Ukraine is a former Soviet republic and since dissolution of USSR its armed forces used Soviet-era small arms, including the Kalashnikov AKM and AK-74 assault rifles. The Vepr has been advertised as a major improvement over AK-74, but, in fact, it is no more than yet another conversion of standard AK-74 into bullpup layout. The standard AK-74 is stripped from its furniture, and the buttplate is fitted directly to the receiver; polymer cheek rest is fitted to the receiver cover, and pistol grip is fitted ahead of the magazine; the cocking handle is moved to the left side of the forearm, but the safety/fire selector lever remained in the same position, now well behind the pistol grip and almost out of reach when gun is shouldered. Vepr is fitted with adjustable open sights and a standard side mount for day or night scopes. Relatively large red dot scope of Ukrainian manufacture is fitted as a standard. Read the rest of this entry »

The LR-300 rifle was manufactured by the small US-based company Z-M Weapons between 2000 and 2007, when all rights for the design were sold to the Para USA, the US-based subsidiary of the Canadian pistol maker Para-Ordnance Ltd. The reworked LR-300 rifle will be sold in USA as Para Tactical Target Rifle, with first sales sheduled to “early 2009″.
Original LR-300 (LR stands for Long Range) rifles were designed by Alan Zitta as an upgrade to the well known and popular M16 / AR-15 rifle. In fact, LR-300 and Para TTR both use standard AR-15-type lower receivers; only upper receivers are different and contain patented modified gas system. The key reason for tha modification was to prowide AR-15-type weapon with capability to mount side-folding stock rather than partially collapsible M4 carbine-type stock. Read the rest of this entry »

The FN FAL (Fusil Automatique Leger – Light Automatic Rifle) is one of the most famous and widespread military rifle designs of the XX century. Developed by the Belgian Fabrique Nationale company, it was used by some 70 or even more countries, and was manufactured in at least 10 countries. At the present time the service days of the most FAL rifles are gone, but it is still used in some parts of the world. The history of the FAL began circa 1946, when FN began to develop a new assault rifle, chambered for German 7.92×33mm Kurz intermediate cartridge. Read the rest of this entry »