The FAL was a revolutionary and very successful design that served the countries of the free world throughout the Cold War.
The Fusil Automatique Léger (Light Automatic Rifle) or FAL was known as the 'Free World's Right Arm" and saw service in almost every western military during the Cold War. Designed by Dieudonne Saive and Ernest Vervier of the infamous Belgian armaments manufacturer Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (FN) it took the field for the first time in 1953. The weapon is best designed as gas-operated, self-loading, selective fire battle rifle chambered in the universally adopted NATO standard 7.62 × 51 mm (308 Winchester) round. Selective fire versions were capable of a theoretical rate of fire of 650 rounds per minute. The rifle was fed by a standard 20-round box magazine. Typical weight of the weapon (there were many variants) was eight pounds. In general the rifle was issued with a 21 inch barrel. Production figures are not exact but it is believed that as many as three million FAL’s exist.
Many gun writers refer to the FAL as a distinct sub variant of the assault rifle family known as the 'battle rifle'. Most of it’s contemporizes such as the M16 and AK47 fired a smaller medium powered round whereas the FAL fired a full powered cartridge. This was useful in the fact that the rifle was inherently more accurate and had a longer range (800meters versus 300 meters), however the larger round also meant more recoil and fewer rounds could be carried. .The FAL has an adjustable gas system that it may be adjusted in battle to keep firing when other rifles have quit from fouling. The weapon is very easily field stripped for clearing and cleaning with no small parts or pins to lose easily. The way the weapon breaks down also allows for cleaning from the breech end so there is less chance to harm the crown of the barrel, thus affecting accuracy. The weapon was found to work in the harshest climates with the exception of the desert. Israeli troops told horror stories for years after the 1967 and 1973 Desert Campaigns in which they found their FN FALs clogged with sand and inoperable. This may be taken with a grain of salt however as the British SAS operators fighting insurgents in Oman and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf region in the 1970's used their L1A1's with great skill and aplomb.
Upwards of a quarter million of these weapons have been retired from service altogether with their former military's and have wound up on the civilian market in the United States and elsewhere. These weapons are generally only a shadow of the implement that they used to be. They have generally been hacked up with the original full auto capable (or convertible) receiver removed and replaced by a new investment-cast receiver assembled on the remaining surplus parts. Please be aware that these receivers are often made to very low standards in the interest of saving money. The original FAL receivers were forged and milled with a projected lifespan of 80,000 rounds, while these newer ones are often only capable of 10% of that abuse before cracking.
The FAL is one of the most reliable and remarkable weapons of the past fifty years and remains as such.
Source : FN-FAL Rifle (Paperback) By Duncan Long Paperback: 133 pages Publisher: Desert Publications (October 1998) ISBN-10: 0879471867 ISBN-13: 978-0879471866
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