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The MAS-49 was formally adopted by the French Army in July 1949. Its final form the MAS 49-56 was the French service rifle until adoption of the FAMAS.
MAS later designed and manufactured the family of rifles chambered in 7.5×54mm French, from the MAS-36 through the MAS-49/56, then later the FAMAS bullpup assault rifle, which uses the 5.56×45mm NATO round. In 2001, weapons production ceased as MAS was absorbed into the Nexter Group.
The FA-MAS Type 62 is a 7.62×51mm NATO rifle developed by the French Army as a replacement for the MAS-49/56. [1] [2] It was the last in series of 40 different prototype rifles designed between 1952 and 1962. [3] [4] However, the introduction of the 5.56×45mm cartridge caused the French to rethink their approach and the project was eventually ...
The 7.5×54mm French MAS has an uncommon 12.39 mm (0.488 in) breech and breechface diameter, and it has ballistics comparable to the 7.62×51mm NATO/.308 Winchester round. [1] The 7.5 French cartridge is somewhat similar in appearance to the slightly longer and thicker 7.5×55mm Swiss GP11 round but users should never try to interchange the two ...
During the 1950s the French military adopted the semi-automatic MAS-49 rifle as their standard service rifle. Though intended to replace the Lebel Model 1886 and Berthier rifles as well as Berthier carbines, budget constraints limited MAS-36 production and it was used with the former rifles in many French army and colonial units. During World ...
However, the United States' adoption of the M16 rifle and 5.56×45mm cartridge caused the French to rethink their approach, and consequently, the Type 62 was not adopted. [8] [9] [10] In the 1960s, MAS began to manufacture under licence the Heckler & Koch G3 battle rifle and later on the Heckler & Koch HK33 assault rifle as temporary substitutes.
They were equipped with standard French army small arms and light machine guns, mainly of 9mm MAT 49 submachine guns, 7.5mm MAS 36 bolt-action rifles, MAS 49 semi-automatic rifles and MAS 49/56 grenade launcher rifles, some AA52 light machine guns, which supplanted and then replaced the FM 24-29 light machine guns, as well as offensive and ...
The manual safety mechanism was copied from the Russian SVT-40, and the FR F1 is the first French-designed rifle to have a manual safety. [7] The standard FR F1 was equipped with the 3.85 power APX L806 telescopic sight designed for the MAS-49 rifle, for economical reasons. These scopes were manufactured with a center point reticle crossed by ...