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Assault rifles are the standard-issue service rifles in most modern armies
Assault rifle is an individual infantry weapon. This class of weapons first emerged during the World War II. First assault rifles were essentially hybrids of submachine guns and rifles. During the World War II assault rifles were first used in large numbers. Before that submachine gun was a weapon of choice. By the end of 20th century they had become the standard issue infantry weapon replacing in most roles semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns.
Assault rifles are usually gas-operated weapons, chambered for intermediate or small caliber cartridges. Their intermediate ammunition has more power than pistol ammunition, but less power than ammunition of standard rifles or battle rifles. Western assault rifles are typically chambered for a standard NATO 5.56x45 mm ammunition. This ammunition is commercially known as .223 Remington. Russian assault rifles are chambered for 5.56x39 mm or 7.62x39 mm ammunition. Chinese military and law enforcement forces use assault rifles chambered for indigenous 5.8x42 mm ammunition.
These weapons have semi-automatic and full-automatic firing modes. Some of them are also capable of firing in 2- or 3-round burst modes.
Some of assault rifles have a bullpup layout. These weapons have a pistol grip located in front of the magazine and the whole operating system and mechanisms are located in place of the buttstock. Such layout allows make the weapon more compact, however it also has some drawbacks. Notably most of the bullpup designs are poorly balanced.
Assault rifles usually have an effective range of 300–800 meters. Currently these weapons are widely used by frontline troops and special operations forces.
Most of the assault rifles are compatible with various accessories, such as bayonets, underbarrel grenade launchers, various optics, night sights. Some of these weapons are capable of launching rifle grenades.
Some modern assault rifles have a modular design. The shooter can easily replace the barrel, or some other components of the weapon. Some of these modular assault rifles are multi-caliber and can be easily converted to fire different types of ammunition. These modular assault rifles can be easily adapted to a variety of roles, by simply changing the barrel, caliber, or other components. Though these weapons are typically more expensive and are used only by elite units.
Automatic rifles, or battle rifles are generally similar to assault rifles. However these weapons are chambered for a more powerful ammunition, and have longer effective range. Though this increase in performance comes at a cost of increased weight, lower rate of fire and smaller magazine capacity. Most current battle rifles are chambered for a standard NATO 7.62x51 mm ammunition (commercially known as .308 Winchester). This powerful round packs a much more formidable punch than intermediate rounds used by assault rifles. Due to their long effective range the automatic rifles can be even used as a designated marksman rifes to extend a fire reach of the squad. However these type of weapons are considered inferior to assault rifles in close quarter combat.
Automatic rifles were very popular in the West during the late 1950s and 1960s. However since the late 1960s their popularity gradually decreased. Many countries replaced them with assault rifles. However today we see more and more countries, yet again, adopting automatic rifles chambered for full-power rifle ammunition.
Some of the most important assault rifles
StG 44 was the first operational assault rifle. It was developed in Germany during World War II. It was more compact than rifle, used a new shorter cartridge and offered greatly increased volume of fire over standard rifles. The StG 44 was an effective weapon, though it appeared too late to have a significant effect on the outcome of the World War II. The StG 44 gave rise to an entire class of weapons. It impacted the most successful modern rifles ever produced, including the AK-47 and M16 assault rifles, as well as FN FAL and Heckler & Koch G3 battle rifles.
AK-47 was designed in 1946 by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It was basically a reverse-engineered version of the German StG 44 assault rifle but with a number of modifications. In 1949 it was adopted Soviet Army. This design was so successful, that shortly it displaced every other firearm in the Soviet Army, except pistols, machine guns and sniper rifles. This weapon made its name for its ruggedness, ease of use and reliability. Newer version of this weapon is still a standard-issue rifle with the Russian military. Currently newer versions of the AK-47 are used by more than one hundred countries. It is estimated that over 90 millions of AK rifles were produced during the last 60 years. It is one of the best examples of a basic individual infantry weapon. Derivatives, clones and copies of the AK-47 are manufactured in a number of countries.
M16 was designed by Eugene Stoner and designated as the Armalite Rifle 15, or AR-15 for short. This weapon used a new 5.56x45 mm (.223 Remington) ammunition. In 1964 a US Army and US Air Force officially adopted this rifle as the M16. Currently variants of this assault rifle are still in service with the US Military, as well as over 50 operators worldwide. It is still manufactured in USA, Canada and China.
L85 is a British assault rifle with bullpup layout. Development of this assault rifle began in the late 1960s. It was adopted by the British Army in 1984. This weapon is compact due to its bullpup layout. The original L85 had a number of reliability issues and was troublesome to maintain. However the British Forces keep on upgrading and using these weapons.
http://www.military-today.com/firearms/assault_rifles.htm
