Origin: France Year: 1978 Type: Bullpup assault rifle Caliber: 5.56x45mm NATO Weight: 3.61 kg (7.96 lb) Length: 757 mm (29.8 in) Barrel length: 488 mm (19.2 in) Capacity: 25 rds
Adopted by the French Armed Forces in 1978, the FAMAS a bullpup-style assault rifle in 5.56x45mm NATO. The unique bullpup layout means that the rifles actions is position behind the trigger group, allowing for a more compact weapon with a longer barrel than more traditional designs. The FAMAS was adopted as a replacement for the aging MAS 49/56 rifles and MAT-49 submachine guns and provided France with an indigenous assault rifle design for use by their military. The initial version, the FAMAS F1, was plagued with several flaws. Plastic parts, such as the cheek riser, were prone to breakage. The rifle was also designed around the use of single-use magazines; however, budget cuts to the military forced soldiers to reuse these delicate, fragile magazines, resulting in reliability issues as the damaged magazines induce jams. The rifle’s design also required the use of specially loaded steel case rounds as the standard brass-cased rounds used by other nations could result in case ruptures and thus severe malfunctions as well as possible injury to the shooter.
Many of the issues associated with the F1 were corrected in the G2 variant which featured a new magwell for use with standard M16 magazines as well the use of reinforced fiberglass in the handguards; however, the G2 was only adopted for use by the French Navy’s Fusiliers Marins and Commandos Marine, leaving the rest of the French Armed Forces to continue using the older F1. In 2016 the French Ministry of Defense announced that the HK416, a piston AR design, would be adopted to replace the FAMAS in French service.
The FAMAS has seen some limited success in on the foreign market and has been adopted by military and law enforcement groups in several countries including Argentina, United Arab Emirates, and Serbia. A semi-automatic version of the FAMAS was also imported and sold in the US by Century Arms but only a made it to the market before poor sales and new import restrictions ended its importation. The few examples available are now valuable collector pieces.
