Fabrique Nationale De Herstal

This week for Firearm Friday we are bringing you the Fabrique Nationale de Herstal, Fusil Automatique Léger more commonly known as the FN FAL.

The FN FAL is a battle rifle designed in Belgium by Dieudonné Saive and manufactured by FN Herstal and others since 1953.

In 1946, the first FAL prototype was completed. It was designed to fire the intermediate 7.92×33mm Kurz cartridge developed and used by the forces of Germany during World War II with the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle. After testing this prototype in 1948, the British Army urged FN to build additional prototypes, including one in bullpup configuration, chambered for their new .280 British (7×43mm) caliber intermediate cartridge. After evaluating the single bullpup prototype, FN decided to return instead to their original, conventional design for future production.

Formally introduced by its designer Dieudonné Saive in 1951, and produced two years later, the FAL has been described as the "Right Arm of the Free World". The FAL battle rifle has its Warsaw Pact counterpart in the AKM, each being fielded by dozens of countries and produced in many of them. A few, such as Israel and South Africa, manufactured and issued both designs at various times.

Design:

The FAL operates by means of a gas-operated action very similar to that of the Soviet SVT-40. The gas system is driven by a short-stroke, spring-loaded piston housed above the barrel, and the locking mechanism is what is known as a tilting breechblock. To lock, it drops down into a solid shoulder of metal in the heavy receiver much like the bolts of the Soviet SKS carbine and French MAS-49 series of semi-automatic rifles. The gas system is fitted with a gas regulator behind the front sight base, allowing adjustment of the gas system in response to environmental conditions. The piston system can be bypassed completely, using the gas plug, to allow for the firing of rifle grenades and manual operation.

The FAL's magazine capacity ranges from five to 30 rounds, with most magazines holding 20 rounds. In fixed stock versions of the FAL, the recoil spring is housed in the stock, while in folding-stock versions it is housed in the receiver cover, necessitating a slightly different receiver cover, recoil spring, and bolt carrier, and a modified lower receiver for the stock.

Short barrel FAL Para with folding stock

For field stripping, the FAL can be opened. During opening the rifle rotates around a two-piece pivot lock and pin assembly located between the trigger guard and magazine well to give access to the action and piston system. This opening method causes a suboptimal iron sight line as the rear sight element is mounted on the lower receiver and the front sight element of the sight line is mounted on the upper receiver/barrel and hence are fixed to two different movable subassemblies. The sight radius for the FAL 50.00 and FAL 50.41 models is 553 mm (21.8 in) and for the 50.61 and FAL 50.63 models 549 mm (21.6 in).

FAL rifles have also been manufactured in both light and heavy-barrel configurations, with the heavy barrel intended for automatic fire as a section or squad light support weapon. Most heavy barrel FALs are equipped with bipods, although some light barrel models were equipped with bipods, such as the Austrian StG 58 and the German G1, and a bipod was later made available as an accessory.

Among other 7.62×51mm NATO battle rifles at the time, the FAL had relatively light recoil, due to the user-adjustable gas system being able to be tuned via a regulator in fore-end of the rifle, which allowed for excess gas which would simply increase recoil to bleed off. The regulator is an adjustable gas port opening that adjusts the rifle to function reliably with various propellant and projectile specific pressure behavior, making the FAL not ammunition specific. In fully automatic mode, however, the shooter receives considerable abuse from recoil, and the weapon climbs off-target quickly, making automatic fire only of marginal effectiveness. Many military forces using the FAL eventually eliminated full-automatic firearms training in the light-barrel FAL.

The L1A1 Self-Loading-Rifle

The L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle (SLR), also known by the initial Canadian designation C1, or in the U.S. as the "inch pattern" FAL, is a British version of the Belgian FN FAL battle rifle. The L1A1 was produced under licence and adopted by the armed forces of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, Jamaica, Malaysia, New Zealand, Rhodesia and Singapore.

The L1A1 is manufactured to a slightly modified design using British imperial units compared to the metric units of the original Belgian FAL. Many sub-assemblies are interchangeable between the two types, while components of those sub-assemblies may not be compatible. Notable incompatibilities include the magazine and the stock.

Most Commonwealth pattern FALs are semi-automatic only. A variant named L2A1/C2A1 (C2), meant to serve as a light machine gun in a support role, is also capable of fully automatic fire. Differences from the L1A1/C1 include a heavy barrel, squared front sight (versus the "V" on the semi-automatic models), a handguard that doubles as a foldable bipod, and a larger 30-round magazine although it could also use the normal 20-round magazines. Only Canada and Australia used this variant. Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom used the Bren light machine guns converted to fire the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge for use in the support role. Canadian C1s issued to naval vessels for boarding party usage were also capable of fully automatic fire.

Australian Military Use:

The Australian Army, as a late member of the Allied Rifle Committee along with the United Kingdom and Canada adopted the committee's improved version of the FAL rifle, designated the L1A1 rifle by Australia and Great Britain, and C1 by Canada. The Australian L1A1 is also known as the "self-loading rifle" (SLR), and in fully automatic form, the "automatic rifle". The Australian L1A1 features are almost identical to the British L1A1 version of FAL. The Australian L1A1 differs from its British counterpart in the design of the upper receiver lightening cuts. The lightening cuts of the Australian L1A1 most closely resembles the later Canadian C1 pattern, rather than the simplified and markedly unique British L1A1 cuts.

The Australian L1A1 FAL rifle was in service with Australian forces until it was superseded by the F88 Austeyr, a licence-built version of the Steyr AUG, in 1988. Some remained in service with Reserve and training units until late 1990. Some Australian Army units deployed overseas on UN peacekeeping operations in Namibia, the Western Sahara, and Cambodia still used the L1A1 SLR and the M16A1 rifle throughout the early 1990s. The British and Australian L1A1s, and Canadian C1A1 SLRs were semi-automatic only, unless battlefield conditions mandated that modifications be made.

Australia, in co-ordination with Canada, developed a heavy-barrel version of the L1A1 as a fully automatic rifle variant, designated L2A1. The Australian heavy-barrel L2A1 was also known as the "automatic rifle" (AR). The L2A1 was similar to the FN FAL 50.41/42, but with a unique combined bipod-handguard and a receiver dust-cover mounted tangent rear sight from Canada. The L2A1 was intended to serve a role as a light fully automatic rifle or quasi-squad automatic weapon (SAW). The role of the L2A1 and other heavy barrel FAL variants is essentially the same in concept as the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) or Bren, but the Bren was better suited to the role of a fire support base for a section, being designed for the role from the start.

In practice many considered the L2A1 inferior to the Bren, as the Bren had a barrel that could be changed, and so could deliver a better continuous rate of fire, and was more accurate and controllable in the role due to its greater weight and better stock configuration. For this reason, Australia and Britain used the 7.62mm-converted L4 series Bren. Most countries that adopted the FAL rejected the heavy barrel FAL, presumably because it did not perform well in the machine gun role. Countries that embraced the heavy barrel FAL included Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, and Israel.

Unique 30-round magazines were developed for the L2A1 rifles. These 30-round magazines were essentially lengthened versions of the standard 20-round L1A1 magazines, perfectly straight in design. Curved 30-round magazines from the L4A1 7.62 NATO conversion of the Bren are interchangeable with the 30-round L2A1 magazines, however they reputedly gave feeding difficulties due to the additional friction from the curved design as they must be inserted "upside down" in the L2A1. The L4A1 Bren magazines were developed as a top-mounted gravity-assisted feed magazine, the opposite of what is required for the L2A1 FAL. This was sometimes rectified by stretching magazine springs.

The Australian L1A1/L2A1 rifles were produced by the Lithgow Small Arms Factory, with approximately 220,000 L1A1 rifles produced between 1959 and 1986. L2A1 production was approximately 10,000 rifles produced between 1962 and 1982. Lithgow exported a large number of L1A1 rifles to many countries in the region. Among the users were New Zealand, Singapore and Papua New Guinea.

A sentry with an L2A1 at Bien Hoa Air Base, 1965

During the Vietnam War, the SLR was the standard weapon issued to Australian infantrymen. Most Australian soldiers preferred the larger calibre weapon over the American M16, because the SLR was substantially more reliable and its more powerful NATO 7.62 round could be trusted to kill an enemy soldier outright. The Australians' jungle warfare tactics used in Vietnam were refined by their experience in earlier jungle conflicts, e.g., the Malayan Emergency and the Konfrontasi campaign in Borneo, and were considered far more threatening by their Viet Cong opponents than those employed by U.S. forces. The Australians considered the strengths and limitations of the SLR and its heavy ammunition load to be better suited to actual combat.

Another product of Australian participation in the conflict in South-East Asia was the field modification of L1A1 and L2A1 rifles by the Special Air Service Regiment for better handling. Nicknamed "the Bitch", these rifles were field modified, often from heavy barrel L2A1 automatic rifles, with their barrels cut off right in front of the gas blocks, and often with the L2A1 bipods removed to install XM148 40 mm grenade launchers mounted below the barrels. The XM148 40 mm grenade launchers were obtained from U.S. forces. For the L1A1, the lack of fully automatic fire resulted in the unofficial conversion of the L1A1 to full-auto capability by using lower receivers from the L2A1, which works by restricting trigger movement.

Australia produced a shortened version of the L1A1 designated the L1A1-F1. It was intended for easier use by soldiers of smaller stature in jungle combat, as the standard L1A1 is a relatively long, heavy weapon. The reduction in length was achieved by installing the shortest butt length (there were three available, short, standard and long), and a flash suppressor that resembled the standard version except it projected a much smaller distance beyond the end of the rifling, and had correspondingly shorter flash eliminator slots. The effect was to reduce the length of the weapon by 2 1/4 inches.

Trials revealed that, despite no reduction in barrel length, accuracy was slightly reduced. The L1A1-F1 was provided to Papua New Guinea, and a number were sold to the Royal Hong Kong Police in 1984. They were issued to female staff cadets at the Royal Military College Duntroon and some other Australian personnel.

In 1970, a bullpup rifle known as the KAL1 general purpose infantry rifle was built at the Small Arms Factory Lithgow using parts from the L1A1 rifle. Another version of the rifle was also built in 1973.

Conflicts - FN FAL

In the more than 70 years of use worldwide, the FAL has seen use in conflicts all over the world. During the Falklands War, the FN FAL was used by both sides. The FAL was used by the Argentine armed forces and the L1A1 Self Loading Rifle (SLR), a semi-automatic only version of the FAL, was used by the armed forces of the UK and other Commonwealth nations.

1950s

• Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960) British FN-made prototypes
• Cuban Revolution (1953–1959)
• Calderonista invasion of Costa Rica (1955)
• Vietnam War (1955–1975)

1960s

• Rhodesian Bush War (1964–1979)
• Congo Crisis (1960–1965)
• Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974)
• Eritrean War of Independence (1961–1991)
• Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)
• Araguaia Guerrilla War (1966–1975)
• South African Border War (1966–1990)
• Six-Day War (1967)
• War of Attrition (1967–1970)
• Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970)
• Moro conflict (1969–2019)
• The Troubles

1970s

• FAL-armed Portuguese soldiers in Angola.
• Bangladesh Liberation War (1971)
• Yom Kippur War (1973)
• Cyprus Peace Operation (Invasion of Cyprus) (1974)
• Ethiopian Civil War (1974–1991)
• Operation Independence (1975–1977)
• Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990)
• Western Sahara War (1975–1991)
• Angolan Civil War (1975–2002)
• Shaba II (1978)
• Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992)

1980s

• Members of the Eastern Caribbean Defense Force in Operation Urgent Fury are armed with FN FAL rifles.
• Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988)
• Falklands War (1982)
• Bougainville conflict (1988–1998)
• 1989 attack on La Tablada barracks

1990s

• Gulf War (1990–1991)
• Rwandan Civil War (1990–1994)
• Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995)
• Burundian Civil War (1993–2005)
• Cenepa War (1995)
• First Congo War (1996–1997)

2000s

• Kivu conflict (2004–present)
• Insurgency in Paraguay (2005 – present)
• Mexican Drug War (2006–present)
• Boko Haram insurgency (2009–present)

2010s

• Rio de Janeiro security crisis (2010)
• Militias-Comando Vermelho conflict (2010-Present)
• Libyan Civil War (2011)
• Syrian Civil War (2011–present)
• Iraqi insurgency (2011–2013)
• South Sudanese Civil War (2013–2020)
• Yemeni Civil War (2014–present)
• Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen (2015–present)

2020s

• Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022-present)
• Israel-Hamas war (2023-present)
• Sudanese civil war (2023–present)