A carbine is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges.
The 5.56×45mm NATO is a rimless bottlenecked centerfire intermediate cartridge family developed in the late 1970s in Belgium by FN Herstal. It consists of the SS109, L110, and SS111 cartridges. On 28 October 1980, under STANAG 4172, it was standardized as the second standard service rifle cartridge for NATO forces as well as many non-NATO countries. Though they are not identical, the 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge family was derived from and is dimensionally similar to the .223 Remington cartridge designed by Remington Arms in the early 1960s.
The 7.62 mm caliber is a nominal caliber used for a number of different cartridges. Historically, this class of cartridge was commonly known as .30 caliber, the equivalent in Imperial and United States Customary measures. It is most commonly used in hunting cartridges. The measurement equals 0.30 inches or three decimal lines, written .3″ and read as three-line.
The IMI Galil is a family of Israeli-made automatic rifles chambered for the 5.56×45mm NATO and 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges. Originally designed by Yisrael Galili and Yakov Lior in the late 1960s, the Galil was first produced by the state-owned Israel Military Industries and is now exported by the privatized Israel Weapon Industries.
The Colt AR-15 is a product line of magazine-fed, gas-operated, autoloading rifle manufactured by Colt's Manufacturing Company ("Colt") in many configurations. The rifle is a derivative of its predecessor, the lightweight ArmaLite AR-15, an automatic rifle designed by Eugene Stoner and other engineers at ArmaLite in 1956.
The ArmaLite AR-18 is a gas-operated assault rifle chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO ammunition. The AR-18 was designed at ArmaLite in California by Arthur Miller, Eugene Stoner, George Sullivan, and Charles Dorchester in 1963 as an alternative to the Colt AR-15 design, a variant of which had just been selected by the U.S. military as the M16. A semi-automatic version known as the AR-180 was later produced for the civilian market. While the AR-18 was never adopted as the standard service rifle of any nation, its production license was sold to companies in Japan and the United Kingdom, and it is said to have influenced many later weapons such as the British SA80, the Singaporean SAR-80 and SR-88, the Belgian FN F2000, the Japanese Howa Type 89 and the German Heckler and Koch G36.
The FNSCAR is a family of gas-operated short-stroke gas piston automatic rifles developed by Belgian manufacturer FN Herstal (FN) in 2004. It is constructed with modularity for the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to satisfy the requirements of the SCAR competition. This family of rifles consists of two main types. The SCAR-L, for "light", is chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO and the SCAR-H, for "heavy", is chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO. Both types are available in Close Quarters Combat (CQC), Standard (STD), and Long Barrel (LB) variants.
The 6.8mm Remington Special Purpose Cartridge is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate rifle cartridge that was developed by Remington Arms in collaboration with members of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit and United States Special Operations Command to possibly replace the 5.56 NATO cartridge in short barreled rifles (SBR) and carbines. Based on the .30 Remington cartridge, it is midway between the 5.56×45mm NATO and 7.62×51mm NATO in bore diameter. It uses the same diameter bullet as the .270 Winchester hunting cartridge.
The Robinson Armament Co. XCR is a multi-caliber, gas piston weapon system developed by Robinson Armament Co. for U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to fill the requirements of the SOF Combat Assault Rifle, or SCAR competition, but was disqualified on a technicality due to late delivery of blank firing adapters. It has been offered to law enforcement, the military, and the general public since 2006.
The two most common assault rifles in the world are the Soviet AK-47 and the American M16. These Cold War-era rifles have been used in conflicts both large and small since the 1960s. They are used by military, police, security forces, revolutionaries, terrorists, criminals, and civilians alike and will most likely continue to be used for decades to come. As a result, they have been the subject of countless comparisons and endless debate.
An intermediate cartridge is a rifle/carbine cartridge that has significantly greater power than a pistol cartridge but still has a reduced muzzle energy compared to fully powered cartridges, and therefore is regarded as being "intermediate" between traditional rifle and handgun cartridges.
A STANAG magazine or NATO magazine is a type of detachable firearm magazine proposed by NATO in October 1980. Shortly after NATO's acceptance of the 5.56×45mm NATO rifle cartridge, Draft Standardization Agreement (STANAG) 4179 was proposed in order to allow NATO members to easily share rifle ammunition and magazines down to the individual soldier level. The U.S. M16 rifle's magazine proportions were proposed for standardization. Many NATO members, but not all, subsequently developed or purchased rifles with the ability to accept this type of magazine. However, the standard was never ratified and remains a "Draft STANAG".
The Beretta ARX160 is an Italian modular assault 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.
An assault rifle is a select fire rifle that uses an intermediate-rifle cartridge and a detachable magazine. Assault rifles were first put into mass production and accepted into widespread service during World War II. The first assault rifle to see major usage was the German StG 44, a development of the earlier Mkb 42. While immediately after World War II, NATO countries were equipped with battle rifles, the development of the M16 rifle during the Vietnam War prompted the adoption of assault rifles by the rest of NATO. By the end of the 20th century, assault rifles had become the standard weapon in most of the world's armies, replacing full-powered rifles and submachine guns in most roles. The two most successful modern assault rifles are the AK-47 and the M16 designs and their derivatives.
The Adaptive Combat Rifle (ACR) is a modular assault rifle formerly designed by Magpul Industries of Austin, Texas, and known initially as the Masada.
Lewis Machine & Tool Company (LMT) is an American armaments company founded by Karl Lewis, in 1980. It manufactures weapon systems, including a variant of the M4 carbine and the M203 grenade launcher. Its products are used by the military forces of the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Estonia and the United States. It formerly produced forged FN FAL receivers for Illinois-based DS Arms.
JSC Arsenal AD is a Bulgarian joint-stock company based in Kazanlak, engaged primarily in the manufacture of firearms and military equipment. It is Bulgaria's oldest arms supplier.
The CZ 805 BREN is a gas-operated modular assault rifle designed and manufactured by Česká zbrojovka Uherský Brod. The modular design enables users to change the calibre of the weapon to 5.56×45mm NATO or 7.62×39mm intermediate cartridges by quick change of barrel with gas tubes, breech block, magazine bay and magazine.
The IPI Vulcan "Malyuk" is an assault rifle developed by the Ukrainian arms company Interproinvest (IPI). It is based on the Soviet Kalashnikov assault rifle, reconfigured into a bullpup layout.
