French to dump the FAMAS?

[Vikram]

That thing is homely!

+1

[xl_target]

The French FAMAS rifle has been a disaster. Its delayed blowback action is powerful enough to rip apart regular NATO brass-cased 5.56x45mm cases and its rifling does not stabilize the modern 5.56mm NATO bullets. The French Army is forced to use steel cased 5.56mm ammunition, thus eliminating the advantages of using the same cartridge as their NATO and EU allies. It that was not bad enough, the ammunition is no longer made in France and has ben to imported. A French journalist told me that China manufactures steel-cased 5.56mm for French military (I will say that another French journalist I spoke to disputes that ammunition is imported from China).

The manufacturer of the FAMAS, the state-owned Manufacture d’Armes de Saint-Etienne (MAS), has been developing firearms since 1777 and is well known for developing the first smokeless power military rifle, the Lebel Model 1886. Sadly this organization no longer has the technical capability to develop a new rifle, which is why France is looking beyond her borders for a new rifle.

- See more at: http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2011 ... HbHGk.dpuf

Now that's a new input. Seems MAS was headed the Ishapore way

Timmy I do agree with you on the ugly looks of the FA MAS. And also that the AUG is a great looker .... and performer too.
But the FA MAS did serve in the First Iraq War and I don't remember reading any adverse field report. It is possible that the rifle had gone through enough modifications by then ? May be you and XL could shed some light on that.

Cheers
TC

TC's post got me interested in the FAMAS's performance. I did some googling and I came across a post from a former French Foreign Legionaire who had this to say about the FAMAS:

Yes, you are right. In my Initial post I stated clearly that I think FAMAS F1 was the best assault rifle of its time, despite the drawbacks of 25 rounds magazine and a certain lack of maximum effective range. My experience of several years using it is utterly satisfactory. I have never seen a FAMAS jamm, not even in the French Alps with temperatures of 30 degrees below zero nor in the desert of Tchad. A full squad of French Army soldiers firing a weapon of a maximum rate of 1000 rounds per minute is a very frightening thing. The firepower we could display with FAMAS rifles was astonising. The bullpup desing makes it very easy to carry, the stock against your shoulder while you walk or even run, ready for the kill. It was so manageable as an MP5. I found conventional rifles heavy and too long to be managed comfortably after having used FAMAS for such a long time.

My question was why did not French Army switched to FAMAS F2 before, as it is an improved desing that makes this weapon even better.

While he was in the Legion quite a few years ago, it appears that like a lot of talk about the poor performance of the M16, the M1A1 Abrams, etc, the problems of the FAMAS were somewhat exaggerated. That being said, if the fact that the FAMAS cannot use NATO ammo is true, it a major drawback; even if France is not a member of NATO.

[timmy]

I suppose that, if they had no intentions of fighting with NATO troops, the steel-cased 5.56x45 was no drawback. It almost seems as if the action had too much power -- maybe that's why it was stripping cases. This might be due to the ratio of mechanical advantage used by the action. But this is only conjecture on my part.

I also wonder why, if the French were not intending to work within NATO, they would select the 5.56x45 round, when they could use whatever they liked? But against that, the Wiki said that the projected G2 version had intended to use NATO magazines.

There seems to be more to this story.

[TC]

Thanks XL. That was a great find. I read a couple of similar reports. But that was years ago. Didn't hear of the FA MAS recently. So was quite moved to hear that they were dumping it.

There seems to be more to this story.

Timmy, I completely agree. Maybe this has got something to do with international trade and commerce and not the rifle. Just a hunch.

TC