The Beretta AS70/90 was a light machine gun or squad automatic weapon derived from the Beretta AR70/90 rifle system. It used the same gas operated, rotating bolt system as the rifle but fired from an open bolt and had a much heavier fixed barrel.
A light machine gun (LMG) is a machine gun designed to be employed by an individual soldier, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. Light machine guns are often used as squad automatic weapons.
A squad automatic weapon (SAW), also known as a section automatic weapon or light support weapon (LSW), is a fully automatic firearm used to give infantry squads or sections a man-portable source of fully automatic firepower. Weapons used in this role are often selective-fire rifles, usually fitted with a bipod and heavier barrel to perform as light machine guns. Squad automatic weapons usually fire the same cartridge as the assault rifles or battle rifles carried by other members of the unit. This reduces logistical requirements by making it only necessary to supply one type of ammunition to a unit. Squad automatic weapons are light enough to be operated by one person, as opposed to heavy machine guns such as the M2 Browning, which fire more powerful cartridges but require a crew to operate at full effectiveness.
The Beretta AR70/90 is a gas operated assault rifle chambered for the 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge, and is the standard issue service rifle of the Italian Armed Forces. The weapon is also designed to be fitted with a rifle grenade, and has grenade sights. The AR series comes in many variants such as the AR90, with a wire folding stock, for use by paratroopers.
There were some minor cosmetic changes from the rifle, including a beefier front hand grip and enlarged handguards around the barrel. The stock was modified slightly to support the shooters shoulder and provides a grip for the support hand.
The carrying handle was removable and its mounting can be used for a variety of optics.
The AS70/90 light machine gun had been introduced by Beretta as a response to the requests of the Italian Army, which by the time (late 1980s) was looking for a more compact and handy squad automatic weapon to replace in this role the MG-42/59 (Italian license-made version of the German Rheinmetall MG3 machine-gun). The AS70/90 anyway never passed well the extremely stringent trial tests it underwent by the Alpini troops of the Italian Army. The open bolt working system made this gun more sensitive to the penetration of dirt and other elements which caused frequent jamming and malfunctions. Furthermore, the AS70/90 fed only by STANAG magazines; and although this includes the possibility of using the high-capacity (100-rounds) Beta C-Mag, this was still too little for the necessity of the Italian Armed Forces, who basically wanted a belt-fed weapon with magazine-feeding possibility as an emergency optional. As a result, the AS70/90 was discarded, the FN MINIMI light machine-gun being adopted instead (and being since manufactured under license in Italy by Beretta). The AS70/90 never interested any other customer, and quickly went out of the Beretta Defence/Police catalogues. The very few samples manufactured are today in the hands of Beretta itself and of the Italian Armed Forces, which make no use of it.
The Italian Army is the land-based component of the Italian Armed Forces of the Italian Republic. The army's history dates back to the unification of Italy in the 1850s and 1860s. The army fought in colonial engagements in China, Libya, Northern Italy against the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I, Abyssinia before World War II and in World War II in Albania, Balkans, North Africa, Russia and Italy itself. During the Cold War, the army prepared itself to defend against a Warsaw Pact invasion from the east. Since the end of the Cold War, the army has seen extensive peacekeeping service and combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank and among its aircraft the Mangusta attack helicopter, recently deployed in UN missions. The headquarters of the Army General Staff are located in Rome, at the back of the Presidential Palace. The army is an all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel.
The Alpini, are a specialised mountain warfare infantry corps of the Italian Army. They are currently organized in two operational brigades, which are subordinated to the Alpine Troops Headquarters.
A fully automatic firearm is said to fire from an open bolt if, when ready to fire, the bolt and working parts are held to the rear of the receiver, with no round in the chamber. When the trigger is actuated, the bolt travels forward, feeds a cartridge from the magazine or belt into the chamber, and fires that cartridge in the same movement. Like any other self-loading design, the action is cycled by the gas expended from the round, hence the necessity of a gas system; this excess of gas sends the bolt back to the rear, ejecting the empty cartridge case and preparing for the next shot. Generally, an open-bolt firing cycle is used for fully automatic weapons and not for semi-automatic weapons. Firearms using advanced primer ignition blowback inherently fire from open bolt only.
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm designed to fire rifle cartridges in rapid succession from an ammunition belt or magazine for the purpose of suppressive fire. Not all fully automatic firearms are machine guns. Submachine guns, rifles, assault rifles, battle rifles, shotguns, pistols or cannons may be capable of fully automatic fire, but are not designed for sustained fire. As a class of military rapid-fire guns, machine guns are fully automatic weapons designed to be used as support weapons and generally used when attached to a mount or fired from the ground on a bipod or tripod. Many machine guns also use belt feeding and open bolt operation, features not normally found on rifles.
The Galil is a family of Israeli made automatic rifles designed by Yisrael Galil and Yaacov Lior in the late 1960s, and produced by Israel Military Industries (IMI). The design is closely based on the Valmet Rk 62, which is itself an improved version of the Soviet AK-47. The first Galils were manufactured using Valmet Rk 62 receivers. Most Galils are chambered for either the 5.56×45mm NATO or 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges. The Galil series of weapons is in use with military and police forces in over 25 countries.
The MG 42 is a 7.92×57mm Mauser general-purpose machine gun designed in Nazi Germany and used extensively by the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the second half of World War II. It was intended to replace the earlier MG 34, which was more expensive and took much longer to produce, but both weapons were produced until the end of World War II.
The Steyr AUG is an Austrian 5.56×45mm NATO bullpup assault rifle, designed in the 1960s by Steyr-Daimler-Puch and now manufactured by Steyr Mannlicher GmbH & Co KG.
The Negev is a 5.56×45mm NATO light machine gun developed by the Israeli firearm manufacturer, Israel Weapon Industries (IWI).
The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) is a family of American automatic rifles and machine guns used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge and designed by John Browning in 1917 for the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe as a replacement for the French-made Chauchat and M1909 Benét–Mercié machine guns that US forces had previously been issued.
The FN Minimi is a Belgian 5.56mm Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW developed by Fabrique Nationale (FN) in Herstal by Ernest Vervier. First introduced in the late 1970s, it is now in service in more than 75 countries. The weapon is currently manufactured at the FN facility in Herstal and their U.S. subsidiary FN Manufacturing LLC.
The Stoner 63, is a 5.56×45mm NATO, Modular Weapon System, using a variety of modular components, it can be configured as a rifle, a carbine, a top-fed light machine gun, a belt-fed squad automatic weapon, or a vehicle mounted weapon. Also known as the M63, XM22, XM23, XM207 or the Mk 23 Mod 0 machine gun, it was designed by Eugene Stoner in the early 1960s. Cadillac Gage was the primary manufacturer of the Stoner 63 during its history. The Stoner 63 saw very limited combat use by United States forces during the Vietnam War, including the Navy SEALs and Marine Corps. A few were also sold to law enforcement agencies.
The MG 3 is a German general-purpose machine gun chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge. The weapon's design is derived from the World War II era MG 42 universal machine gun that fired the 7.92×57mm Mauser round.
The Darne machine gun is a machine gun of French origin.
The Beretta Model 1918 was a submachine gun that entered service in 1918 with the Italian armed forces. Designed initially as a semi-automatic rifle, the weapon came with an overhead inserted magazine, an unconventional design based on the simplicity of allowing a spent round to be replaced using assistance from gravity. The gun was made from half of a Villar-Perosa aircraft submachine gun, and as such it can be considered the first submachine gun issued to and used by the Italian armed forces, and is possibly the first SMG used as a general-issue combat weapon.
The Colt Automatic Rifle or Colt Light Machine Gun is a 5.56 mm NATO, open-bolt, full-automatic-only firearm developed by Colt Defense. It is based on the M16A2/A4, and has a distinctive squared-off handguard, vertical grip, carrying handle and integrated bipod.
The HK21 is a German 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun, developed in 1961 by small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch and based on the G3 battle rifle. The weapon is in use with the armed forces of several Asian, African and Latin American countries. It was also license-manufactured by Fábrica de Braço de Prata in Portugal as the m/968 and in Mexico by SEDENA as the MG21. In the German military (Bundeswehr) and the federal police (Bundespolizei) it is designated "G8".
The SIG MG 710-3 is a Swiss 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) designed and manufactured by SIG - Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft. The weapon was developed as a commercial venture primarily for export, since the Swiss Army had already adopted the 7.5 mm MG 51 GPMG, produced by the federal arms factory W+F.
The Ameli is a 5.56mm light machine gun designed for the Spanish Army by the nationally owned and operated Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales Especiales (CETME) small arms research institute.
The Beretta BM 59 is an Italian-made rifle based on the M1 Garand rifle, but chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO, and modified to use a detachable magazine. Later revisions incorporated other features common to more modern rifles.
The Beretta ARX160 is an Italian modular rifle manufactured by Beretta. Developed for the Italian Armed Forces as part of the Soldato Futuro program, the ARX160 was launched in 2008 as a commercial weapon system independent from the Soldato Futuro ensemble, complete with a companion single-shot 40×46mm NATO low-velocity grenade launcher, called the GLX160, which can be mounted underneath the rifle or used with an ad hoc stock system as a stand-alone weapon.
The Beretta 70 is a magazine-fed, single-action semi-automatic pistol series designed and produced by Beretta of Italy, which replaced the earlier 7.65mm Beretta M1935 pistol. Some pistols in this series were also marketed as the Falcon, New Puma, New Sable, Jaguar, and Cougar. The gun is notable for its appearances in film, and is also the first compact Beretta pistol to feature several improvements commonly found in Beretta pistols for the rest of the century.
