V Sten and two .303 Lee-Enfield
No.5 ‘jungle carbines’. (IWM
MAU 587)
15
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
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
16
two direct hits. These memories were all too fresh in 1956.
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
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.
17
�
� Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
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)
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
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.
19
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
India
Another strange FAL twist too often
overlooked by Western historians
involved the newly independent state of
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.
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
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).
21
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com