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A submachine gun, abbreviated SMG, is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an automatic firearm with notably less firepower than a machine gun. As a machine gun must fire rifle cartridges to be classified as such, submachine guns are not considered machine guns.
The IMI Galil is a family of Israeli-made automatic rifles chambered for the 5.56×45mm NATO or 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 are now exported by the privatized Israel Weapon Industries.
The SA80 is a British family of 5.56×45mm NATO service weapons used by the British Army. The L85 Rifle variant has been the standard issue service rifle of the British Armed Forces since 1987, replacing the L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle. The first prototypes were created in 1976, with production of the A1 variant starting in 1985 and ending in 1994. The A2 variant came to be as the result of a significant upgrade in the early 2000s by Heckler & Koch and remains in service as of 2020. The A3 variant was first issued in 2018 with several new improvements.
An automatic rifle is a type of autoloading rifle that is capable of fully automatic fire. Automatic rifles are generally select-fire weapons capable of firing in semi-automatic and automatic firing modes. Automatic rifles are distinguished from semi-automatic rifles in their ability to fire more than one shot in succession once the trigger is pulled. Most automatic rifles are further subcategorized as battle rifles or assault rifles.
The Lanchester is a submachine gun (SMG) manufactured by the Sterling Armaments Company between 1941 and 1945. It is a copy of the German MP28/II and was manufactured in two versions, Mk.1 and Mk.1*; the latter was a simplified version of the original Mk.1, with no fire selector and simplified sights. It was primarily used by the British Royal Navy during the Second World War, and to a lesser extent by the Royal Air Force Regiment. It was given the general designation of Lanchester after George Herbert Lanchester, who was charged with producing the weapon at the Sterling Armaments Company.
The SAR 21, officially known as the Singapore Assault Rifle – 21st Century, is a gas-operated, direct impingement, magazine-fed bullpup assault rifle chambered for the 5.56×45mm cartridge.
The Sterling submachine gun is a British submachine gun. It was tested with the British Army in 1944–1945 as a replacement for the Sten but it did not start to replace it until 1953. A successful and reliable design, it remained as standard issue with the British Army until 1994, when it was phased out as the L85A1 assault rifle was phased in.
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 American Adaptive Combat Rifle, the Belgian FN F2000, the Japanese Howa Type 89 and the German Heckler and Koch G36.
The EM-2, also known as Rifle, No.9, Mk.1 or Janson rifle, was a British assault rifle. It was briefly adopted by British forces in 1951, but the decision was overturned very shortly thereafter by Winston Churchill's incoming government in an effort to secure NATO standardisation of small arms and ammunition. It was an innovative weapon with the compact bullpup layout, built-in carrying handle and an optical sight.
The L64 was an intermediate calibre British bullpup layout prototype assault rifle developed in the 1970s. At one time it was known as the 4.85 Individual Weapon, a reference to the calibre of the bullet it fired.
The Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF) was a UK government-owned rifle factory in Enfield, adjoining the Lee Navigation in the Lea Valley. The factory produced British military rifles, muskets and swords from 1816. It closed in 1988, but some of its work was transferred to other sites.
INSASor Indian Small Arms System is a family of infantry arms consisting of an assault rifle and a light machine gun (LMG). It was designed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment and manufactured by the Ordnance Factories Board at its various factories. The INSAS assault rifle was the standard infantry weapon of the Indian Armed Forces for almost three decades.
The Leader T2 MK5 Series firearms were chambered for the 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge and manufactured by Leader Dynamics of Smithfield, NSW, Australia (1978-1982/1983). The Leader was the brainchild of British weapons designer Charles St. George. It was originally a contender for a 5.56 mm Australian military service rifle to replace the then-issued Lithgow L1A1-F1 SLR and Colt M16A1 rifles. What was unique about this endeavor was that Australia had never designed or manufactured its own commercial gas-operated semi-automatic rifle. The rifle was abandoned when the Steyr AUG was adopted for use by the Australian military.
The Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) is a major firearms, defence contractor, and military corporation headquartered in Wah Cantt, Punjab, Pakistan. It is "the largest defence industrial complex under the Ministry of Defence Production, producing conventional arms & ammo to international standards. POF Board headquarter is at Wah Cantt. Presently POF comprises of 14 ordnance factories and three commercial subsidiaries. Pakistan Ordnance Factories also manufacture commercial explosives, hunting ammunition and possess extensive facilities for the manufacture of brass, copper and aluminum ingots, extrusions and sections for non-military applications. A garments factory, which has state of the art cloth cutting facilities and modern stitching units, manufactures military uniforms and can also cater for the needs of the civil sector".
The Singapore Assault Rifle 80 is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge. It is designed and manufactured by the Singaporean company the Chartered Industries of Singapore, the predecessor of the now ST Kinetics division of ST Engineering.
An assault rifle is a selective fire rifle that uses an intermediate 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 sub-machine guns in most roles. Some of the most successful assault rifles include the AK-47, M16, IMI Galil and Heckler & Koch G36.
The Sterling Engineering Company Ltd was an arms manufacturer based in Dagenham, famous for manufacturing the L2A3, ArmaLite AR-18 and Sterling SAR-87 assault rifles and parts of Jaguar cars. The company went bankrupt in 1988.
ArmaLite, or Armalite, is an American small arms engineering company founded in the mid 1950s in Hollywood, California. It ceased business in the 1980s. The company was revived in 1996 by Mark Westrom.
The L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle, also known as the SLR, by the Canadian Army designation C1A1 (C1) or in the US as the "inch pattern" FAL, is a British version of the FN FAL battle rifle produced by the Belgian armaments manufacturer FN Herstal. The L1A1 was produced under licence and has seen use in the Australian Army, Canadian Army, Indian Army, Jamaica Defence Force, Malaysian Army, New Zealand Army, Rhodesian Army, Singapore Army and the British Armed Forces.
The FFV 890 was a Swedish assault rifle manufactured and designed by Försvarets Fabriksverk. The FFV 890 was based on the Israeli IMI Galil through a manufacturing licence, which in turn was based on the Finnish Valmet RK 62 and ultimately the Soviet AK-47. The FFV 890 was designed between 1975 and 1980, and its final iteration, FFV 890C, competed in the Swedish Armed Forces trials for the new 5.56×45mm NATO assault rifle, where it ended up as a runner-up to the FN FNC, which was then chosen as the Ak 5. The FFV 890C was never widely adopted by any service, though some rifles were used by the Swedish police.
References
- Hogg, Ian V. & Weeks, John (1981). Military Small Arms of the 20th Century (4th ed.). Northfield, IL: DBI. ISBN 0-910676-28-3.