By Joe Poyer

     Perhaps no other rifle has ever been adopted by so many governments for their military forces as the Fusil Automatique Leger. The FAL has been used by more than seventy-nine nations since it was introduced in 1953, more nations than the Mauser bolt-action rifle, or even the Kalashnikov rifle. It has seen battle in places as diverse as a sub-Antarctic island and the Kalahari Desert. It has been used by professional soldiers against conscript soldiers and by counter-terrorists against terrorists, and vice versa.
     It is impossible to know how many FALs have been manufactured but a good guess would be in excess of three million. In addition to the parent com­pany, Fabrique Nationale, of Liege, Belgium, the rifle has been manufac­tured in eight other countries. And well over one and one half million unli­censed L1Al FALs have been made in India. Production has ceased in Bel­gium, the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, South Africa and Austria but continues in Brazil and Argentina. Australia ceased manufacture in early 1988 with a final run of spare parts.

BEGINNINGS

     Few battle rifles have been developed without controversy and the FAL is no exception. It was conceived before the Nazi occupation of Europe, came to term during the dark years of war and was born amid the clamor of colonial wars and newly emerging nations that followed in the wake of the Axis defeat.
     In August 1939, the last month and year of the old era, only two nations possessed self-loading rifles: the Soviet Union (5VT38 Tokarev) and the United States (M1 Garand). All other nations were equipped with, and some ended the war with, the bolt-action rifle.
     The machine gun and rapid-firing artillery piece confined infantry to trenches during the first great conflagra­tion of the century. Rifle firing was con­ditioned by trench spacing which varied from three hundred to 1200 yards and more. Twenty-two years later, the armored vehicle provided infantry with fast moving firepower support that could be concentrated quickly at an enemy’s weak point, as the Nazi armies quickly demonstrated in Poland, Bel­gium and France and again in Greece, Yugoslavia and Russia.
     Germany and Russia both were quick to recognize that infantry now had to be mobile and armed with small caliber, rapid-fire weapons. Italy was the first to produce a submachine gun, the Villar Perosa in 1915. Germany was quick to adopt the principle and in 1918, produced some 35,000 Model 1918 Bergman 9 mm submachine guns for use by "Storm Troopers.” By 1945, a wide range of submachine guns were in use by all combatants. Firing pistol caliber ammunition from crudely but efficiently made shoulder arms, in­fantry soldiers could now carry triple and more the amount of ammunition to use in assaulting enemy positions.
     Both Germany and Russia recognized at about the same time that greater strik­ing power and range were required. Germany developed a new class of weapon, the Sturmgewehr or assault rifle. The only example to reach production and be issued in any great numbers was the MP43/5TG44 series of assault rifles. The Soviet entry, M.T. Kalashnikovs AK47 series of assault rifles was not per­fected until after the war.
     The key to the assault rifle concept was a cartridge intermediate in power between the 7.92 X 57 mm Mauser or the 7.62 X 54R mm Model 1891 Mosin ­Nagant rounds and the 9 mm Parabellum or 7.62 Tokarev pistol rounds used in submachine guns. German designers produced a “cut down” cartridge measur­ing 7.92 X 33 mm that was superior to pistol cartridges, inferior to rifle car­tridges but which still provided signifi­cant energy and striking power out to six hundred meters.

BIRTH PANGS

     As the details of the Nazi armaments industry and the strides they had made in design concepts, coupled with rumors of new designs being perfected in the USSR became known, the British were more and more concerned with the effects of the assault rifle on future infantry tactics. The Small Arms Ideal Caliber Panel (SAICP) was created in 1945 and charged with developing a new infantry cartridge. The goal was the lightest rifle/cartridge combination that would be effective at six hundred meters. At the same time, the Armament Design Establishment (ADE) began development of a new rifle concepts.
     It soon became apparent that the “ideal” caliber was .276 (called the .280). A British Army team traveled to Wash­ington to discuss their results and dis­covered that the US was working on a modified .30-06 cartridge and had no interest in any round with a bullet diam­eter of less than .30 inches and ballistics comparable to the .30-06 cartridge. The Americans wanted the firepower of the 7.92 X 33 mm cartridge, but the range of the .30-06 (7.62 X 63 mm). The contro­versy raged for several years. The British were certain that the .280 car­tridge was the answer and the Ameri­cans were just as sure their new car­tridge, styled T65 and to be known as the 7.62 X 51 mm NATO round (.308 in civilian usage), was the correct answer.
     In the late 1940’s and early 1950's, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was new and feeling its way through the twin mine fields of nationalism and economic self-interest. Standardization in military equipment among NATO members was the goal but nearly every NATO nation wanted to rebuild its war shattered manufacturing infrastructure. Producing rifles to reequip armies was one way to do so. Even better if they could earn foreign exchange by selling them abroad!
     As the two leading members of NATO who would be expected to shoulder the greatest burden of fighting in a future war, the United Kingdom and the United States were most con­cerned to replace their respective battle rifles — the .303 bolt-action Short Model Lee Enfield (SMLE) and the M1 Garand — with a modern self-loading rifle that could be used in the new as­sault role. The US was sold on a design known as the t45, which become the M14 rifle, and the British were just as certain that their EM2 — a bullpup design with built-in optical sight should be selected.
     Meanwhile, at Fabrique Nationale. Saive had been asked by the British to develop his rifle design using the German 7.92 X 57 mm (8 mm Mauser) cartridge as a new battle rifle. The Ger­man cartridge was chosen as it was the only rimless cartridge then manufac­tured in the United Kingdom (it had been used in the BESA machine gun during World War II). Later, Saive would rechamber his design for the .30-06 cartridge.
     But the tests were unsuccessful due to ammunition problems. Saive made design changes but by then, the British had gone on to more advanced con­cepts. Fabrique Nationale did manufac­ture this rifle as the SAFN (Saive Auto­matic Fabrique Nationale) Model 1949, and it was sold to the armies of Bel­gium (.30-06), Venezuela (7 X 57 mm) and Egypt (7.92 X 57 mm).
     His design changes produced proto­types of a new rifle chambered for the German 7.92 X 33 mm round. When the British .280 cartridge was accepted by the Ministry of Defense, Saive im­mediately chambered two test rifles in the new round. These rifles were referred to in French as the fusil Automatique Leger (Light Automatic Rifle), the first time this name was used.

The FAL was also manufactured in a folding stock version was often called the “para­-model.” Note the shortened barrel and flash-hider.