The FN FAL Battle Rifle Read online

  V Sten and two .303 Lee-Enfield

  No.5 ‘jungle carbines’. (IWM

  MAU 587)

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  Australia and New Zealand

  The Australians and New Zealanders also called the FAL the L1A1. The Australian L1A1, with some small differences from the Canadian version, was initially manufactured in Canada, and then in Australia at the Small Arms Factory at Lithgow, New South Wales. From 1988 the L1A1 was replaced in Australian service by the 5.56×45mm F88 Austeyr, a modified version of the Austrian Steyr AUG manufactured under licence in Australia. New Zealand, having bought Australian-made L1A1s for three decades, also switched to the 5.56×45mm Austrian assault rifle in 1988, adopting the Steyr AUG model (see under ‘Austrian StG 58 and variants’

  below). Australian-made L1A1 rifles were also exported to Papua New Guinea and Singapore.

  Lithgow also manufactured the heavy-barrelled SAW model,

  designated the L2A1; this was identical to the Canadian C2A1, and was found by the Australians to be unsatisfactory. In the years before the Vietnam War, the Australians developed a new, upgraded weapon known as the X1F2A2 Automatic Rifle; this never reached the field as Australia decided to adopt a US weapon, the 7.62×51mm M60 GPMG (general-purpose machine gun), instead.

  West Germany adopted the FN

  FAL as the G1 rifle in 1956, but

  Germany

  was forced to buy FN-made rifles

  The post-war Bundeswehr (Federal Defence Force), was founded on 12

  rather than licence-producing

  November 1955. It gladly adopted the FAL as the G1 (‘G’ standing for their own. After buying 100,000

  Gewehr, or rifle), purchasing some 100,000 FN-produced weapons that Belgian rifles, West Germany

  instead chose to develop and

  entered service in 1956. The G1 had user modifications similar to the manufacture a Mauser/CETME

  Austrian StG 58 (see below) such as light metal handguards and an design, which became Heckler &

  integral folding bipod. Like the Austrians, the Germans did not adopt the Koch’s famous G3. Photographed

  heavy-barrelled FAL, preferring to employ the MG3 (a modernized in 1960, this G1 has been

  relegated to cadet use. (DoD)

  version of the famous MG42) in 7.62×51mm calibre as its GPMG.

  The Germans were eminently happy with the weapon

  and wished to produce it themselves under licence. The

  Belgians would have none of it, however, having so recently

  suffered five years of Nazi rule, and insisted that the Germans only purchase Belgian-made FALs. Under German

  occupation, FN had been taken over by the major German

  armaments manufacturer Deutsche Waffen- und

  Munitionsfabriken (DWM), its directors arrested, and the

  assembly lines run by slave labour after only 10 per cent of

  the Belgian factory workers showed up when ordered to do

  so. After the Allies invaded Normandy in 1944, the Germans

  stripped the FN factories of everything useful and sent it back to augment German industries, wrecking what they couldn’t

  take with them. FN tried to get back on its feet immediately

  after liberation near the end of 1944, refurbishing Allied

  weapons and making cheap, easily produced spare parts such

  as tank tracks. Adding insult to injury, the Germans later

  tried to destroy the factory with V1 flying bombs, achieving

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  two direct hits. These memories were all too fresh in 1956.

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  For political and economic reasons, as well as national pride, the Germans insisted upon a weapon they could manufacture domestically.

  Thus, the Germans instead found themselves looking to a design developed by the Spanish government’s Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales Especiales (CETME). The CETME design was a late-war Mauser-designed assault rifle that never developed past the prototype phase before the end of World War II. Like the FAL, it was originally chambered in the wartime 7.92×33mm kurz calibre, and was intended to be a true assault rifle. The later ‘Type A’ ammunition was dimensionally identical to the 7.62×51mm NATO, but used a much-reduced powder charge and lighter bullet to make it more controllable in full-automatic fire.

  Working with the Germans, the Spanish adopted the NATO

  7.62×51mm cartridge, and a slightly modified version of the weapon went on to be manufactured in West Germany by Heckler & Koch (H&K) as the G3, beginning in 1959. The G3 was to become the second most popular military battle rifle – as opposed to assault rifle – in the Free World, used by some 50 nations and licence-manufactured in a dozen.

  ed by

  some 50 nations and licence-manufactured in a dozen.

  Without the G3,

  h

  the F

  e G3, th

  AL may have completely dominated the militaries

  e FAL may have completely dominated the militaries

  of the West during the Cold

  e

  W

  st during the Cold ar

  W .

  ar

  . The majority of the

  German G1s were sold as surplus to the

  G1s were sold as surplus to th Turkish

  e Turkish Army

  Army

  in the mid-1960s.

  d-1960s.

  Austria

  One of the favourites among

  the favourites amon

  g

  today’s FAL shooters is the

  FAL shooters is th

  e

  Austrian StG 58,

  StG 58 which is similar to

  , which is similar to

  the German G1.

  an G1

  . The Österreichisches

  The Österreichisches

  Bundesheer (Austrian

  e

  Armed Forces),

  r (Austrian Armed

  founded in its present-day form in

  Forces), founded in its present-day form in An StG 58. This Austrian FAL

  May 1955,

  5 initially purchased 20,000 FN-built rifles made to their own

  ,

  variant has an integral folding

  particular specifications in 1958,

  r specifications in

  then contracted to licence-build their

  1958, then contracted to licence-build their bipod and metal handguards, and just visible is its four-pronged

  own at the Steyr plant of Steyr-Daimler-Puch.

  flash suppressor. Thanks to

  The StG 58 features lightweight metal handguards and its own integral the 7.62mm NATO round’s folding bipod which, when not in use, fits snugly and flush into slots in range and punch, the StG 58

  the bottom of the handguards. The handguards quickly became too hot remained in service with the elite Jagdkommando until the

  to touch after prolonged firing, however. The use of plastic furniture mid-1990s – nearly two decades instead of wood for the butt stock, pistol grip and carrying handle was after its 5.56mm replacement, intended to reduce weight, but the StG 58 is still a heavy weapon even for the Steyr AUG, came into service.

  a FAL, at about 4.5kg (10lb) unloaded.

  (Clyde Frogg-PD)

  A very interesting feature is the Steyr flash suppressor. In addition to serving as a flash suppressor, its ribbed design and 22mm (0.9in) diameter also allowed the StG 58 to fire rifle grenades without any modifications or adapters, and the four-pronged open front of the suppressor could also be used as a wire cutter.

  The StG 58 was replaced by the 5.56×45mm StG 77, a bullpup assault-rifle design also known as the AUG ( Armee-Universal-Gewehr, or Universal Army Rifle), from 1977; this weapon was also built by Steyr.

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  �
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  Venezuela, Argentina

  and Brazil

  The FAL proved particularly popular in

  South America. One of the first and most

  unusual South American FAL purchases

  involved Venezuela, which in 1954 ordered

  5,000 FN-made FALs in the little-known

  7×49.15mm Optimum 2 calibre. Like the

  British .280in round, this cartridge was

  much closer to being a true intermediate

  round than the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge

  was. Other Venezuelan modifications

  included a three-pronged flash hider and a

  locally designed rear disc sight. Later,

  Venezuela also adopted the 7.62×51mm

  NATO and the first 5,000 rifles procured

  were rebarrelled to that calibre.

  Argentina had ordered FN-made FALs,

  officially adopting the weapon in 1955 and

  commencing negotiations with FN to

  manufacture their own, but the chaos

  following the overthrow of General Juan

  Perón as President of Argentina that

  November delayed licensing until 1958, with

  FN-manufactured FALs only arriving late

  that year. The Argentines retained the

  acronym FAL, as in Spanish the rifle was

  termed the Fusil Automático Liviano. The

  Argentina has exported its

  state-owned Dirección General de Fabricaciones Militares (DGFM) arms domestically produced FALs to

  factory at Rosario eventually produced standard-model FALs plus two other South American states.

  folding-stock ‘Para’ models – one with the standard-length barrel (533mm, Here, a Bolivian soldier stands

  or 21in) and the other, for special troops, with the so-called ‘super-short’

  guard, armed with a folding-stock

  FAL. (SSgt Kenrick R. Thomas/

  436mm (17.2in) barrel – as well as the heavy-barrelled FN 50.41 SAW, DoD)

  known in Spanish as the FAP ( Fusil Automático Pesado). Some 150,000

  weapons were manufactured by DGFM, although an estimated 15 per cent of Argentina’s military weapons were made by FN in the 1970s. Argentine-made FALs have been widely exported throughout South and Central America, to Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras, Peru and Uruguay.

  Brazil was particularly pleased with the FN FALs it purchased from Belgium. The Brazilians, too, contracted to produce their own FAL, the M964, from 1964. Although the M964 was exclusively produced by Fábrica de Armas de Itajubá, one of many subsidiaries of Brazil’s gigantic Indústria de Material Bélico do Brasil (IMBEL), FAL parts manufactured in Itajubá are commonly identified using the IMBEL label. IMBEL eventually produced a wide variety of different models of the FAL, including: r the standard rifle, offering either select-fire capability (M964) or 18

  semi-automatic only (M964 MD2)

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  r a carbine-length barrel with the same fire options (M964 MD1 and Over two decades, the Brazilian M964 MD3, respectively)

  state-run arms manufacturer

  Fábrica de Armas de Itajubá

  r a folding-stock ‘Para’ model with standard-length barrel offering produced around 250,000 FAL

  either select-fire capability (M964A1) or semi-automatic only rifles under licence from FN.

  (M964A1 MD2)

  These Brazilian Army soldiers

  r a folding-stock ‘Para’ model with carbine-length-barrel, again from the Ipiranga Special Border offering either select-fire capability (M964A1 MD1) or semi-automatic Platoon, carry the M964A1

  folding-stock version of the FAL.

  only (M964A1 MD3).

  (USAF MSgt Adam M. Stump/

  DoD)

  Like Argentina, Brazil also adopted the heavy-barrelled version as the FAP

  (in Portuguese, Fuzil Automático Pesado).

  Brazilian IMBEL receivers are well respected for their quality and have become the standard for American firms and gunsmiths to use to assemble complete FALs for today’s shooting public. Perhaps a quarter of million M964s were made before work began in the early 1980s on the new MD

  series of weapons, essentially a FAL rebuilt to use the 5.56×45mm NATO

  round. The folding-stock MD-2 and the fixed-stock MD-3 were adopted in 1985, and remain in service today.

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  India

  Another strange FAL twist too often

  overlooked by Western historians

  involved the newly independent state of

  India, whose armed forces were still

  equipped with the .303in No. 1 Mk III*

  Lee-Enfield into the mid-1950s. In 1958

  the American 7.62×51mm AR-10 and

  5.56×45mm AR-15 rifles were tested to

  the satisfaction of the Indian military, but

  politics and old ties to Britain led to the

  adoption of the 7.62×51mm NATO

  cartridge and the FN FAL in 1963.

  The Indian Armament Research &

  Development Establishment (ARDE)

  ordered several Metric-pattern FALs

  from FN, as well as multiple examples of

  both British and Australian Inch-pattern

  L1A1s. These rifles were minutely

  dissected and tested, and the Indian Army

  was brought on board with the new FAL.

  Seeking to manufacture their own

  version of the FAL domestically, the

  Indian military was soon butting heads

  with FN. The Belgian firm insisted that

  the Indians purchase Belgian FN

  machinery to manufacture the rifles and

  hire Belgian FN technicians to run the

  show. These requirements seemed a little

  Indian soldiers pay tribute at

  insulting to the Indians, as the Ishapore Rifle Factory had been in the the annual Martyrs’ Day in New

  business of gun-making for a century; the Indians also felt that FN was Delhi, 2011. The Ishapore Rifle

  demanding far too much money in the way of licensing payments and Factory has manufactured the 1A

  royalties for each rifle produced. India was not a wealthy nation and had version of the FAL since 1960, and

  along with De Santos Arms of the

  an infantry-heavy army, the sixth largest in the world at that time, which United States and Brazil’s IMBEL,

  of course required a great many rifles, involving a correspondingly large it is one of the three firms still

  expenditure of money.

  manufacturing new FALs. (© STR/

  So, ARDE’s Small Arms Design Group began drawing up plans for

  epa/Corbis)

  their own weapon, incorporating what suited their military needs best by using their existing FALs and L1A1s as patterns. Thus, the resultant 1A was a mixture of Inch- and Metric-pattern components. As a consequence, most Indian parts are not interchangeable with either Metric-pattern FALs or Commonwealth Inch-pattern SLRs. Manufacture of the 1A began at the Ishapore Rifle Factory in 1960.

  This move, of course, did not sit well with FN; in the Belgians’ opinion, the 1A was merely an unlicensed copy of their FAL. An international row ensued. The Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964), apparently hadn’t been aware of the dealings either, and successfully satisfied FN’s complaints by purchasing additional standard FALs, FALOs 20

  and 60.20 GPMGs manufactured by FN in Belgium.

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  The Ishapore Rifle Factory initially produced the 1A at a rate of 750

  rifles per week, with gradual increases, until it was replaced in Indian service from 1998 by the locally designed 5.56×45mm INSAS (Indian Small Arms System). The 1A st
ill remains in limited production for the export market, however.

  The 1A offers semi-automatic fire only, like the British L1A1. A select-fire version, the 1C, was made primarily to be a port-firing weapon in the Sarath infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), an Indian-manufactured version of the Soviet BMP-2. Despite the purchase of some heavy-barrelled FALs from Belgium, the Indian Army’s SAW of choice remained the L4 version of the Bren gun in 7.62×51mm calibre, some of which are still in service with various units.

  Israel

  The fledgling Israel Defense Forces (IDF) adopted the FN FAL –

  alongside the locally originated 9×19mm Uzi submachine gun – in 1955

  in order to standardize their infantry armament, until that date consisting of a wide variety of World War II-era weapons. They called it the Rov’ve Mittan (‘rifle, self-loading’), or Romat for short; the heavy-barrelled version was designated the Makle'a Kal, or Makleon. As with some other nations’ FALs, the Israeli rifles were originally select-fire weapons offering full-automatic fire, but they were later modified to fire semiautomatic only. The first weapons were Belgian FN-made specimens, but eventually Israel was to licence-produce the entire weapon and its magazines domestically. The Romat was replaced in service by the US

  5.56×45mm M16 and the Israelis’ own Galil – in both 5.56×45mm and 7.62×51mm – from 1972 onwards, although the Romat remained in Israeli production into the 1980s.

  South Africa

  The South African Defence Force (SADF) adopted the FAL in preference to rival weapons, including the German G3 and the US AR-10. They designated the standard fixed-stock rifle with full-length barrel and select-fire capability as the R1, the folding-stock 50.64 version as the R2, and a fixed-stock version with full-length barrel offering semi-automatic fire only as the R3. These weapons were progressively replaced from 1982 by the domestically produced 5.56×45mm R4 (select-fire, full-length rifle), R5 (carbine) and R6 (compact personal defence weapon), all based on the Israeli Galil. The South Africans adopted the heavy-barrelled version as the R1 HB.

  The Netherlands

  The Dutch adopted the FAL in 1961 as the Het licht automatisch geweer; this version offered semi-automatic only. The heavy-barrelled 50.42 version was designated the Het zwaar automatisch geweer. The Dutch eventually replaced the weapon with the Canadian C7 and C7A1 (see above).

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