FN FAL automatic rifle: "The right hand of the free world"
History FN FAL project (Fusil Automatique Leger - “Automatic rifle, light”) began immediately after the end of the Second World War, when the basic requirements for advanced small arms for the army were defined. The development of the new rifle was led by engineers Dieudonne Sev and Ernest Vevier. An interesting fact is that during the development the future rifle managed to change ammunition several times. Initially, FN FAL was supposed to use an intermediate cartridge 7,92x33 mm, developed in Germany during the war. A little later a rifle version appeared under the British cartridge 7x43 mm. Finally, it was not until the early 1950s that FN created the final weapon using the NATO 7,62x51 mm cartridge.
According to some reports, the emergence and spread of a rifle chambered for 7,62х51 mm was contributed by the military-political processes that took place on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In the early 1950s, the United States, Great Britain and Belgium reached an agreement on weapons and ammunition. According to this agreement, the European countries were to gradually switch to the American cartridge 7,62х51 mm, and the US pledged to adopt a new Belgian rifle. It should be noted that the Americans did not fulfill the conditions of this "gentlemen's agreement" and did not adopt the FAL rifle. The US military chose her M14 rifle.
Despite these problems, the Belgian rifle still interested foreign buyers. Moreover, the first customer of this weapon was precisely a foreign country. In 1955, the FN FAL under the designation C1 was adopted for use in Canada. Only a year later, the new rifles officially became the main weapon of the Belgian army, and in 1957 and 1958 - in the UK (under the designation L1 LSR, later L1A1) and Austria (as Stg 58), respectively.
The Belgian rifle FN FAL proved to be quite a successful weapon, thanks to which many other countries quickly became interested. Thus, in addition to FN, the Austrian company Steyr, the British RSAF Enfield, the Brazilian IMBEL and many other organizations were engaged in the production of this weapon. It is noteworthy that Belgium at the time refused to sell Germany a license to manufacture rifles. One of the consequences of this was the appearance of the Heckler-Koch G3 automatic rifle, which later became one of the main FAL competitors in the international market.
A total of FAL rifles were adopted by the 90 armies of the world. Most enterprises produced these rifles until the seventies-eighties, after which the manufacture of new and more advanced models began. At the moment, FN FAL rifles or their modifications are made only in two countries. Brazil continues to manufacture these weapons for the needs of the army and security forces, and several US firms provide rifle-amateur rifles.
The wide distribution of FN FAL rifles, as well as the sale of a license to manufacture them to several countries, led to the appearance of a number of modifications of these weapons. New rifles retained the basic features of their prototype, although they had some differences. Licensed weapons equipped with different sights, different design butts and other details. In addition, some changes were made to the automation. Thus, the United Kingdom and some countries of the Commonwealth of Nations made only modifications without the possibility of firing in lines. Otherwise, licensed and modified FAL retained the basic features of the basic design.
The Belgian designers from the FN company independently developed and launched into the series only four versions of the FAL rifle, which differed from each other by several features. The base modification received the factory designation "50.00". Model "50.63" was equipped with a folding butt and a shortened barrel, and "50.64" - only a folding butt. The “50.41” or FALO rifle received a bipod and a weighted barrel, which allowed it to be used as a light machine gun.
Automatic rifle FN FAL built on the basis of vapor automation. Automatic weapons uses a short stroke gas piston. A similar scheme had previously been repeatedly used on various weapons, including the Belgian rifle FN SAFN-49, developed in the late forties. Above the barrel there is a gas chamber with a pressure regulator. At the request of the military, the regulator can completely shut off the flow of gases to the piston, which is necessary for firing rifle grenades. The gas piston is equipped with its own return spring, which moves it to the front position after the shot.
The bolt group of the rifle is made in the form of a massive frame and the shutter itself. Due to the use of a short stroke of automatic operation, the shutter has specific features. Immediately after the shot, the bolt group receives a powerful, but small in time push, after which it shifts to the rearmost position and compresses the return spring. Locking the shutter is skewed. When moving the bolt carrier to the extreme front position, the rear part of the bolt rests on a special protrusion on the bottom of the receiver.
In the basic modification of the rifle "50.00" and other versions with a rigidly fixed butt, the return spring was located in a special channel inside the butt. The bolt group was supposed to interact with it through a long stem-shank. In versions equipped with a folding butt, the shank was absent, and the return spring was inside the receiver. This design led to the need for some refinement of the bolt carrier.
The receiver box of the FN FAL rifle was made in the form of two units connected by a hinge. The barrel and bolt were located in its upper part, the trigger mechanism - in the lower part. The butt was attached to the bottom of the receiver. The connecting joint was located between the magazine receiving window and the trigger guard. In order to clean and maintain the rifle, it was required to release the latch in the rear part of the receiver, after which it was possible to “reverse” the rifle and gain access to its internal units.
FAL rifle trigger mechanism was located in the lower hinged part of the receiver. In the basic version USM allowed to block the sear, as well as to fire single or in automatic mode. The flag of the fuse-translator of fire was on the side surface of the receiver, above the pistol grip and trigger guard. As already mentioned, some modifications of the FN FAL rifle were equipped with a simplified trigger mechanism, which did not allow to shoot bursts.
For submission of 7,62X51 mm NATO ammunition, rifles of the FAL family use box-shaped detachable magazines on 20 cartridges. Some light machine guns based on an automatic rifle were stocked with 30 ammunition stores. Due to the existence of a large number of modifications of the FAL rifle, created in different countries according to local production standards, different types of weapons may use different shops that have specific compatibility. For example, the British rifle L1A1 or the Canadian C1 can be equipped with magazines from the base FN FAL, and the reverse replacement is impossible.
The Belgian versions of the FN FAL rifle were equipped with a front sight with a muffler mounted on a gas chamber, as well as a diopter gun sight on the back of the receiver. During upgrades and modifications rifles received other sighting devices, including telescopic sights. Different countries assembled rifles of their production with various sights. Currently available rifles with a receiver, the upper part of which is equipped with Picatinny rail.
Depending on the country of production differed butt and handguard. The base version of the Belgian-made “50.00” had wooden forend and stock. In the future, the tree was replaced with plastic and metal. Belgian modifications for the landing were equipped with a metal butt of a frame structure mounted on a hinge.
The first modifications of the FN FAL rifle and some of its other versions were equipped with a muzzle brake-flame arrester. Its outer diameter allowed the use of rifle grenades that meet NATO standards. In addition, on the trunk there were attachments for a bayonet.
The base 50.00 rifle had a total length of 1090 mm. The 50.41 submachine gun was longer on the 10 mm. The 50.63 rifles (with a shortened barrel and folding stock) and 50.64 (with folding stock) had a total length of 1020 and 1095 mm, respectively. With their butts folded down, they shortened to 736 (“50.63”) and 838 (“50.64”) mm. Due to the wooden butt and forearm, the base version of the rifle without cartridges weighed 4,45 kg. The weight of rifles with a metal folding butt did not exceed 3,9 kg. The heaviest weapon from the basic Belgian line was the FALO light machine gun - 6 kg without ammunition.
All variants of the FN FAL rifle, with the exception of the “50.63”, had a barrel length of 533 mm. The shortened barrel had a length of 431 mm. Used automatics allowed firing at a rate of up to a minute per minute 650-700. The initial speed of the bullet at the exit from the rifled barrel reached 820 m / s. The aimed shooting range was announced at the level of 650 m, the effective range - 500 m.
The beginning of the licensed production of FAL rifles outside Belgium led to the emergence of two main families of these weapons, conventionally referred to as “inch” and “metric”. The first family dates back to the British rifle L1A1, the second is a further development of the basic FAL. The differences of the families are that in preparation for the production of British gunsmiths were forced to change the design of the rifle in accordance with the capabilities of their industry and existing standards. Subsequently, on the basis of the “inch” version of the FAL rifle, weapons were created and produced for several countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. Other states used versions of the basic "metric" rifle.
Due to the characteristics and comparative cheapness of the rifle FN FAL and its modifications are widespread. This weapon was put into service in the 90 states of the world. 13 countries bought a license and produced new rifles in their factories. Some of the license holders were engaged in developing their own modifications of weapons, as well as modifying it with the method of installing new sighting devices, changing the design of the butt and forend, etc.
FN FAL rifles were adopted by a large number of countries in Asia, Africa and South America. In the middle of the last century the political situation in these regions seriously changed, resulting in numerous revolutions, regime changes and wars. Due to the rather large spread of the FAL rifle, they were actively used in a large number of armed conflicts of that time. It was in the first decades of operation that the Belgian rifle received the nickname “the right hand of the free world”. At the same time, the fighters with FN FAL had to face for the first time in a battle with an enemy armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles.
The FAL rifle and its modifications have been used in armed conflicts since the late fifties. For example, in Vietnam, these weapons were used by Australian and Canadian units. FN FAL was the main small arms of the Israeli army in the first Arab-Israeli wars. In the context of combat use, battles for the Falkland Islands are of particular interest: both Argentina and Great Britain were armed with FAL rifles of various modifications.
The reason for the commercial success of the FN FAL rifle can be considered its high performance. Throughout all the decades of its operation, high penetration and destructive ability of the 7,62x51 mm NATO cartridge was noted, as well as good accuracy and accuracy when firing single. In addition, the rifle had a relatively simple design, facilitating its use and maintenance.
However, the rifle was not without flaws. One of the main ones is low weight combined with a relatively powerful cartridge. Because of this, when shooting in automatic mode, accuracy and accuracy left much to be desired. The FALO light machine gun, equipped with a heavy barrel and bipod, also had insufficient stability. At the same time, the Light Automatic Rifle used a relatively heavy cartridge, which affected the size of the wearable ammunition.
During the Arab-Israeli wars, it was revealed that the FAL rifle has insufficient resistance to pollution. In desert conditions the weapon was quickly clogged with dust and sand, which affected its performance. The final drawback of the weapon is its large size, which in certain situations made it difficult to use it.
Production of the automatic rifle FN FAL started in 1953 year. The first country adopted these weapons in 1955 year. Since then, several million rifles have been produced in various versions. In most of the countries that bought the license, the production of Belgian rifles was completed several decades ago. In a large number of armies, FN FAL has already given way to newer weapons. However, exploitation of these rifles continues in a number of countries, and Brazil retains their production. Such a long history and wide distribution allow us to consider the FN FAL automatic rifle as one of the best types of small arms of the last century.
On the materials of the sites:
http://fnherstal.com/
http://world.guns.ru/
http://militaryfactory.com/
http://bratishka.ru/
http://falfiles.com/
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