Abattle rifle is aservice rifle chambered to fire afully powered cartridge.[1]
The term "battle rifle" is aretronym created largely out of a need to differentiateautomatic rifles chambered forfully powered cartridges from automatic rifles chambered forintermediate cartridges, which were later categorized asassault rifles.[2] Battle rifles were most prominent from the 1940s to the 1970s, when they were used asservice rifles. While modern battle rifles largely resemble modernassault rifle designs, which replaced battle rifles in most roles, the term may also describe older military full-powersemi-automatic rifles such as theM1 Garand,SVT-40,Gewehr 41,Gewehr 43,Type 4,FN Model 1949, andMAS-49.[3][4]
First examples of semi-automatic fully powered-cartridge rifles used in World War I are theFusil Automatique Modèle 1917 in8×50mmR Lebel and theWinchester Model 1910 in.401 Winchester Self-Loading.
DuringWorld War I, all of the world's armies were equipped withbolt-action rifles, and the thought of fully automatic fire in a design that was lightweight and controllable enough to be used by a single soldier was seen as something that would be extremely useful in the static conditions oftrench warfare.TheRussian Empire produced the world's first battle rifle, theFedorov Avtomat, which was select-fire and fired the rather underpowered6.5mm Arisaka round from a 25-round box magazine. Only about 100 were produced and used during the war,[5] before theRussian Civil War forced Russia to withdraw its forces in 1917, and so there is an absence of reports on the combat effectiveness of Fedorov rifles, but they continued to be produced until 1925. Fedorov rifles were also used in limited numbers during the opening stages of theWinter War.
France developed theChauchat-Ribeyrolles 1918 submachine gun, an automaticshortrifle chambered in8×50mmR Lebel, intended to defend tank crews.
The battle rifle was of major significance duringWorld War II, with theUnited States,Soviet Union,Nazi Germany, andImperial Japan all producing them in some capacity. Millions were produced during this era, but overall, with the sole exception of the United States,bolt-action rifles were much more common on the battlefield.
At the outbreak of World War Two, the United States was the only nation in the world to have formally adopted a battle rifle as theirservice rifle. TheM1 Garand fired the.30-06 Springfield cartridge, which loaded from an eight-rounden bloc clip. When empty, this clip would eject upwards out of the rifle, making a distinctiveping sound in the process, after which a new en bloc clip could be inserted into the rifle. The adoption of the semi-automatic rifle allowed American riflemen to field much greater sustained firepower than their Allied and Axis contemporaries, who were still using bolt-action rifles as their primary rifle. The Garand continued to see front line service during theKorean War, saw limited service during the Vietnam War, and served as the basis for the creation of theM14 rifle.
The Soviet Union issued one major battle rifle, theSVT-40, which was invented byFedor Tokarev, who is also well known for creating theTokarev pistol. It uses the7.62×54mmR cartridge, and reloaded with a 10-round magazine, but the receiver was open-top, meaning it could also be loaded with 5-round stripper clips, the same ones used in theMosin-Nagant.[6] The SVT's performance was overall unsatisfactory, owing largely to its lack of reliability, in particular that it needed frequent cleaning, and thestock was of a poor quality. Nonetheless, over 1 million rifles were produced, and it continued to see service until the end of the war.[7] Like the Mosin-Nagant, it was replaced by theAK-47 shortly after World War II. Aselect fire variant named the AVT-40 was also produced in limited numbers where regularmachine guns such as theDP-27 were not available, but the weapon's 10 round capacity made it somewhat unsuitable for fully automatic fire.
Nazi Germany was responsible for a large amount ofexperimental weaponry during the war. Among these was theFG-42, a rifle built specifically for theFallschirmjäger (paratroopers). The rifle was meant to be a jack-of-all-trades that would be used during the first stages of anairborne operation, before heavier weapons like theMG-42 could be sent in.[8] The FG-42 was aselect fire rifle, which had a 20-round magazine that loaded on the left of the rifle, and it used the7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge. It was first used during theBattle of Rhodes (1943), and continued to see limited service until the end of the war, with a total of about 7,000 produced. Postwar observers were very impressed by the rifle, resulting in the BritishEM-2 rifle and the AmericanM60 Machine Gun, which was standard issue in the U.S. during theVietnam War. Both of these designs were heavily influenced by the FG-42.[9]
Another German design built during the Second World War was theGewehr 41, which was produced byWalther Arms andMauser, and had a 10-round internal magazine, loaded with 2 stripper clips and used the7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge. About 145,000 were produced before the Mauser design was worked upon and made into theGewehr 43. Externally, the two rifles look mostly identical, and the main difference that sets them apart is that the G43 reloads with external box magazines (10 rounds), and has ashort-stroke piston, whereas the G41 uses the same system as that in theM1922 Bang rifle. Over 400,000 G43s were built.
During thePacific War, theEmpire of Japan created theType 4 rifle, also known as the Type 5, to act as a counter to the AmericanM1 Garand. While initial attempts were made as rudimentary copies of the Garand, it was found that the Japanese7.7×58mm Arisaka cartridge didn't respond well to being fitted into the Garand's internals, and so, the en-bloc clip design of the Garand was replaced with a 10-round internal magazine, loaded with stripper clips, as was seen in the GermanGewehr 41. Only 250 were built, in 1945, when theImperial Japanese Army was already at its breaking point, and production ceased with the surrender in August of that year.
The most enduring battle rifle of theCold War is theFN FAL (Fusil Automatique Léger). The FAL is a rifle produced byBelgian companyFN Herstal, firing7.62×51mm NATO from 20 or 30 round box magazines. It was first produced in 1953, at which point all the nations of theWarsaw Pact exceptCzechoslovakia (which first used its ownvz. 52 rifle before switching to thevz. 58 model), were all equipping with theAK-47, or some variant of it, but mostNATO countries had their own, domestically produced designs. For instance, theUnited Kingdom used theLee-Enfield, theUnited States used theM1 Garand, andFrance used theMAS-49. The FAL was supposed to solve this issue; however, theUnited States chose not to adopt it, primarily because their own design, theM14 rifle, was a pound lighter, less internally complex, and there was financial benefit for the United States in producing it domestically. At the time of its creation, it was adopted by several NATO countries, includingBelgium,Luxembourg, theNetherlands, among many others. TheUnited Kingdom manufactured their own version of the FAL, theL1A1 Self-Loading Rifle, which issemi-automatic only. Thoughassault rifles are typically more common in contemporary usage, the FAL is still in active service in many nations (none of which are in NATO), most notablyBrazil. In total, the FAL has been used by over 90 countries and over 7,000,000 have been produced,[10] leading to the rifle's other, unofficial name: "The Right Arm of theFree World."[11]
The 'Heckler & Koch G3 (Gewehr 3) is aroller-delayed blowback operating system rifle developed in the 1950s by the Germanarmament manufacturerHeckler & Koch (H&K) in collaboration with the Spanish state-owned design and development agencyCETME (Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales Especiales), firing 7.62×51mm NATO from 5, 10, 20, 30, or 40 round detachablebox magazines and 50 or 100 round detachabledrum magazines.[12] It was first produced in 1959. The modular designed G3 has over the years been exported to over 70 countries and manufactured under licence in at least 15 countries, bringing the total number built to around 7,800,000.[13]
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TheM14 rifle is an American design, made to replace theM1 Garand, which was used as the basis for the M14. It is aselect fire weapon, firing7.62×51mm NATO from 20-round detachable box magazines. It was the primary infantry rifle used during theVietnam War, but once deployed into combat, there were complaints about the weapon's performance, such as it was too difficult to control infull auto, its profile was too long, and the weapon was generally unreliable. A 1962Department of Defense report described it as "completely inferior" to the M1 Garand.[14] It went into production in 1959 and about 1,300,000 M14 rifles have been produced.[15] The M14 was eventually replaced by theM16assault rifle, which was a controversial decision as the M16's less powerful5.56×45mm NATO cartridge, combined with the fact it was much smaller and lighter, and had plastic furniture instead of wood, led some soldiers to sarcastically call the new rifle the 'Mattel 16'.[16] Despite initial shortcomings, however, the M16 remains in American military service to this day, and it is the most produced rifle in5.56×45mm NATO cartridge.
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TheArmaLite AR-10 is a7.62×51mm NATO battle rifle designed byEugene Stoner in 1955, as a late entrant to theUnited States Army's Light Rifle Trials to replace theM1 Garand in US service.[17] It was initially manufactured byArmaLite (then a division of theFairchild Aircraft Corporation) and under amanufacturing license byArtillerie Inrichtingen. First introduced in 1956, the AR-10 used an innovative combination of a straight-line barrel/stock design withphenolic composite, a newU.S. patent 2,951,424 filed gas-operated bolt and carrier system and forged alloy parts resulting in a small arm significantly easier to control in automatic fire and over 1 lb (0.45 kg) lighter than other infantry rifles of the day.[18] Over its production life, the original AR-10 was built in relatively small numbers, with fewer than 10,000 rifles assembled. However, the ArmaLite AR-10 (later developed into theArmaLite AR-15,M16 rifle, andM4 carbine) would become the progenitor for a wide range of firearms.
After WW2, the USSR was the first global power to make an assault rifle the standard infantry weapon, with theAK-47 family of firearms. After the United States formally adopted theM16 rifle in the 1960s, nearly every other nation adopted the assault rifle paradigm over the following decades. Because they were more controllable, much lighter, and still offered acceptable levels of penetration,intermediate cartridges were considered a better choice, and gradually battle rifles began to be replaced with weapons such as theSteyr AUG,Heckler & Koch G36,FAMAS, andSA80. However, battle rifles do continue to be used in certain roles where the extra power is appreciated, for example,designated marksmen in theBundeswehr use theHK417.[19] Other examples of contemporary battle rifles include theSCAR-H,Mk 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle,Desert Tech MDRx,IWI Tavor 7, andXM7 rifle.
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