The FN FAL Battle Rifle Page 2
(1855–1926).
When Browning died of a heart attack at his work bench, Saive took over the project his boss had been working on: a design for a self-loading pistol. After considerable development, including Saive’s own staggered-row 13-round box magazine, which doubled cartridge capacity without making the grip too wide, the pistol was finally adopted by the Belgian Army in 1935 as the GP 35 (‘GP’ standing for Grand Puissance, or High Power) in 9mm Parabellum. It came to be known to the rest of the world as the Browning Hi-Power and is still in use today.
By the beginning of 1940, FN had developed the rifle design to the point where they were ready to manufacture and market it. The timing, of course, was disastrous, as the Nazi war machine overran the Low Countries that May. Saive and his design team managed to destroy all the design material for their new rifle and escape to Britain. Saive and his team offered their services to the British military. While officials were impressed, the fall 9
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An early FN FAL with wooden
of France had left Britain all alone to resist the German war machine and furniture and a conical flash hider.
much of the British Army’s weaponry had been abandoned on the beaches (Neil Grant)
of Dunkirk. It was certainly not the time to adopt a new rifle or, more importantly, to retool factories to manufacture it.
After Belgium’s liberation, Saive went back to work on his original design. It was a slow process. Almost all of Europe had been devastated by the war, with cities and industries in ruins and millions dead or homeless. Saive’s first post-war effort was the FN Modèle 1949, often known as the SAFN ( Saive Automatique, Fabrique Nationale). The SAFN, made in various calibres, was a semi-automatic rifle with a ten-round detachable box magazine; it offered performance on a par with the M1
Garand. The SAFN was easily adapted to customer needs, and was manufactured in .30-06, 8×57mm, 7×57mm, 7.62×51mm NATO and
7.65×53mm calibres. The weapon was purchased by Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Luxembourg and Venezuela.
Belgium sent a battalion of well-trained crack troops as part of UN forces fighting in the Korean War, and the SAFN reportedly gave these soldiers yeoman service in harsh conditions.
While the SAFN was a good rifle, using the same gas operation and tilting-bolt mechanism later employed by the FAL, the timing was wrong once more. By the time the SAFN was introduced, the West was already attempting to leave behind the bolt-action and semi-automatic battle rifles and seeking an assault-type rifle. Perhaps the SAFN’s most important contribution was providing sufficient sales to help Fabrique Nationale recover from Europe’s wartime destruction and post-war financial ruin.
Even as the SAFN was being prepared for full production, Dieudonné Saive and Ernest Vervier had already produced a 1947 prototype of what would become the FAL, originally chambered for the German 7.92×33mm kurz (short) assault-rifle round. When introduced to the .280in British round, Fabrique Nationale’s designers very much liked what they saw in the cartridge and further specimens of their new rifle were chambered for the British intermediate cartridge.
In either calibre, the FN weapon had great potential as a true assault rifle. The new FN prototype rifles came in three ‘flavours’: a 485mm (19.1in) barrel carbine version was intended for general infantry use; a 560mm (22.1in) barrel model with a bipod was intended to be a squad automatic weapon (SAW) or light machine gun (LMG); and a bullpup short rifle was most likely intended to compete with the British EM-2, were that project to take off. All three models offered a significant increase in infantry firepower along with reduced weight and length when 10
compared to the full-size World War II-era Allied battle rifles of the day.
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The potential of the bullpup design for compactness is obvious in the table The heavy-barrelled FN FALO
below. While the FN short rifle (bullpup) has a barrel some 127mm (5in) ( Fusil Automatique Lourd) squad longer than that of the relatively short and handy US M1 Carbine, the FN automatic weapon. (Neil Grant) weapon was still shorter overall.
With a NATO standard round yet to be adopted, the British took examples of their EM-2 and of the FAL in .280in calibre to compete with the American entry, the T25, in the 1950 Light Rifle Trials. None of the rifles measured up to the tests; all of the weapons were essentially still prototypes, with refinements yet to be made. Of the contenders, however, the FN rifle made the best impression on the US Army’s Infantry Board at Fort Benning, Georgia, with the adjudicators considering it to be the best of the bunch. They were also quite enthusiastic about the .280/30 round.
Low-ranking infantry officers, however, do not get to make such decisions as which rifle to equip fighting men with. Colonel Studler would FN prototypes compared to conventional Western military rifles No. 4 Mk 2
FN Short Rifle
M1 Garand
Lee-Enfield
M1 Carbine
FN Short Barrel FN Long Barrel
(Bullpup)
Country
USA
UK
USA
Belgium
Belgium Belgium
Calibre
.30-06 calibre
.303in
.30 calibre
7.92×33mm kurz
7.92×33mm kurz
7.92×33mm kurz
Barrel length
610mm (24in)
640mm (25.2in)
458mm (18in)
485mm (19.1in)
560mm (22.1in)
585mm (23in)
Overall length
1,106mm (43.5in) 1,128mm (44.4in) 904mm (35.6in)
985mm (38.8in)
1,060mm (41.7in) 860mm (33.9in)
Empty weight
4.3kg (9lb 8oz)
4.11kg (9lb)
2.36kg (5lb 3oz)
3.92kg (8lb 10oz)
4.05kg (8lb 15oz)
3.91kg (8lb 10oz)
Loaded weight
4.5kg (10lb)
4.36kg (9lb 10oz)
2.77kg (6lb 2oz)
4.535kg (10lb)
4.665kg (10lb
4.525kg (10lb)
(15-round
5oz)
magazine);
2.99kg (6lb 10oz)
(30-round
magazine)
Capacity
Eight-round
Ten-round
15- or 30-round
20-round
20-round
20-round
en bloc clip
magazine
detachable box
detachable box
detachable box
detachable box
Sights
183–1,097m
91–1,189m
137–229m
100–600m
100–600m
100–600m
(200–1,200yd)
(100–1,300yd)
(150–250yd)
(109–656yd)
(109–656yd)
(109–656yd)
Cyclic rate of
Semi-automatic
Manual bolt
M1: semi-
550rds/min
550rds/min
550rds/min
fire
only
automatic only
M2: 750–850rds/
min
11
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ABOVE & BELOW: During the
not back down from his pet project, the T65 cartridge. American insistence 1950s a version of the FN FAL
on the 7.62×51mm round sounded the death knell for the EM-2. Having was entered into the competition
been specifically designed around the .280in cartridge, it could not be to become the new US service
reworked to take the heavier, more powerful .30-calibre load.
rifle, which eventually
selected
the M14. These were built by
One British Army officer summed up their sincere efforts to advance the US gunmaker Harrington &
EM-2 and the .280-calibre thus: they had been ‘Studlered’. A huge Richardson, and designated the
international row developed over the new standardized NATO cartridge.
T48. Harrington & Richardson
The British went so far as to officially adopt the EM-2 as the ‘Rifle, built 500 examples for the trials
process. (National Firearms
Automatic, Calibre .280, No. 9 Mk 1’, although it was never actually issued Museum, NRAmuseum.org)
to troops. Eventually, political considerations prevailed and the Americans got their way, and the 7.62×51mm became NATO standard in 1954.
A new NATO cartridge
Now that the NATO cartridge was official, a new rifle had to be developed for it. Although they had also been enthusiastic about the .280in, the Belgians hedged their bets and worked to redesign the FAL to use the 7.62×51mm cartridge.
In 1953, the US Army conducted a new series of tests involving the
‘FN Lightweight Cal. 30 Rifle’ pitted against the American T44, both these weapons being in 7.62×51mm. Once more, the FN’s performance was sufficiently strong to prompt the Infantry
Board to make two recommendations; as well as
calling for a limited procurement of the FN rifle,
they urged a halt to development of the T44.
Once again, however, infantry officers did not get
the final say in weapons procurement.
The next big showdown came in December
1953, when the rifles were sent to Fairbanks,
Alaska, for the Arctic Winter Tests. While the FNs
were boxed up at Fort Benning after the first
trials and sent directly to Fairbanks, the T44s
stopped off at Springfield Armory en route. For
several weeks experts went over the rifles with a
fine-tooth comb, testing and retesting them in the
Armory’s cold chamber, and making various
hand-fitted individual modifications to ensure the
weapons would perform well in the cold. Of
course, the T44s beat the FNs handily in the
12
Arctic Winter Tests.
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Meanwhile, there had been an
informal behind-the-scenes deal
in which the Pentagon, the
headquarters of the US
Department of Defense, had
promised Belgian representatives
that the US Army would adopt
the FAL as their new rifle if the
Belgians in turn supported the
American efforts to adopt the
7.62×51mm round. Once the
new NATO round was adopted,
however, the United States chose
its own rifle design, the M14.
During the same period,
Canada had gone along with the
adoption of the T65 cartridge, but
in 1954 had ordered 2,000 FALs from FN for troop trials and testing. Two British soldiers with L1A1s Canada became the first country officially to adopt the FAL for military use, take part in Exercise Barbican II as the C1, in 1956. One by one, other nations would follow, until over 90 in the mountains of Cyprus during the 1960s. (IWM MH 33983)
countries used the rifle. The United States would not be one of them.
Colonel Studler, right before his own retirement in 1953, had set in motion the chain of events that would lead to the M14 rifle being officially adopted as America’s new issue military rifle in 1957. While the Americans attempted to get other NATO nations to adopt it, they had few takers. The Nationalist Chinese in Taiwan, formerly Formosa, adopted it, but at that time they depended almost entirely upon American largesse to equip their military.
The rest of the Free World was looking towards Belgium and the FAL.
‘Inch’ and ‘Metric’ patterns
There are two major ‘types’ of FAL: the so-called ‘Inch’ pattern and the
‘Metric’ pattern. When Britain adopted the FAL as the L1A1 SLR (Self-Loading Rifle), dimensions were converted to imperial measurements. For other nations outside the former Commonwealth, the original metric patterns remained standard. Most, but not all, parts are interchangeable between Inch and Metric FALs. For instance, the British SLR can use either Inch- or Metric-pattern magazines, but Metric FALs cannot use Inch-pattern magazines.
In addition to their different dimensions, the British and Commonwealth SLRs were all semi-automatic only, not even capable of being converted to full-automatic, at least not ‘officially’. Other changes used in the Inch-pattern SLR included: the long flash hider with bayonet lug; a folding cocking handle; a folding rear sight; and an enlarged change lever/safety and magazine release, which are much easier to manipulate, especially when wearing gloves or mittens. The Metric FAL has seven adjustments to its gas block while the SLR has 11. Oddly enough, the British deleted the bolt hold-open device, which locks the bolt to the rear when the last round is fired from the magazine, a feature usually considered quite desirable.
13
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INTO SERVICE
Canada
In the Canadian Army, as well as the militaries of the UK and other Commonwealth countries, the FAL had some very big shoes to fill. The
.303in Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifle, in its various guises, was a long-used and beloved infantry weapon known for its sturdiness, reliability, power and accuracy. The latest version, still in use, was the No. 4 Mk I. Despite the sterling reputation of the Lee-Enfield, the Canadian military was more than happy with its acquisition of the FAL, with Colonel Bingham, Director of Infantry, noting:
We have encountered no difficulty in the training of personnel to use this weapon. The design of the weapon lends itself to easy instruction due to the limited number of working parts. Recruits have no more difficulty understanding and operating this weapon than they did with the No 4. I feel the big feature of this Rifle is the improvement in marksmanship. The recruit of today becomes a better shot with less effort than in the days of the No 4. This factor greatly influences the soldier in his early training and gives him the required confidence in the Rifle. (Quoted in Stevens 1982: 107)
The Canadians adopted variants
both of the FAL rifle and the FN
Like the British and Commonwealth L1A1, the Canadian C1 – the C1A1
FALO squad automatic weapon,
variant being the most produced and widely used – was an Inch-pattern their version of the latter being
FAL offering semi-automatic only, and served as the Canadians’ primary developed jointly with Australia.
infantry rifle until 1984, when it was supplanted by the 5.56×45mm The heavy-barrelled C2, seen
here, featured a novel bipod/
NATO C7 rifle and the C8 carbine, both based on the US AR-15. The handguard arrangement, the
heavy-barrelled FALO ( Fusil Automatique Lourd, or heavy automatic wood-shrouded legs of the
rifle) version, with modified handguards, barrel, sights and magazines, bipod folding back to become
became the Canadians’ squad automatic weapon (SAW) in the form of the the handguard. (Spec Vince E.
Warner/DoD)
C2A1. One last Canadian FAL, often overlooked, was the C1D. This was the standard C1 rifle
with the select-fire
capability of the Metric
FAL, offering full-
automatic. It was used
only by the Royal
Canadian Navy, to give
b o a r d i n g p a r t i e s
automatic firepower
without the extra weight
and bulk of the C2A1.
Canadian variants of the
manufactured under
licence by Canadian
Arsenals Ltd of Long
14
Branch, Ontario.
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Britain
After testing Belgian-made FNs, the British
contracted to licence-build a modified
Inch-pattern version of the FAL as the
L1A1. The first new native-built L1A1
SLRs began rolling off the assembly lines
at the Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF)
Enfield in early 1957, but some Belgian-
made FN rifles were used by British forces before production started. The TOP: A British L1A1 SLR with weapon was also manufactured in a variety of other locations including wooden stock and L2A2 SUIT
Birmingham Small Arms Ltd (BSA) and Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) sight. (TM Archive) Fazakerley. British-made L1A1s were exported to Brunei, Jamaica and INSET: The SLR’s L1 knife Malaysia as well as to Rhodesia until that country made its Unilateral bayonet, which was fitted over Declaration of Independence on 11 November 1965 and consequently the flash hider with a simple bayonet lug. (TM Archive)
became the subject of a British arms embargo.
Originally, L1A1 furniture (forearm, stock, carrying handle and pistol grip) was made of walnut wood, but this was eventually replaced with synthetic furniture. A fibreglass and nylon composite known by the brand name of Maranyl, it is identifiable by its ‘pebbled’ texture meant to provide a more secure grip for soldiers in the field. This was not accomplished in one fell swoop, but often over years as older stocks were replaced as needed.
British forces never adopted the heavy-barrelled SAW version of the FAL, preferring to keep the L4 7.62x51mm version of the famous Bren gun. After three decades of use across the world, the L1A1 was replaced in British service by the 5.56×45mm SA80, a select-fire bullpup assault rifle outwardly resembling the ill-fated EM-2, from 1985 onwards.
For the British Army’s troop trials
of the FAL, Fabrique Nationale
produced 4,000 7.62mm X8E1
rifles, and they were issued
during operations against the
Mau Mau in Kenya. Here, the first
and second soldiers carry X8E1s,
while the others carry a 9mm Mk