The FAL operates by means of a gas operated action, the gas
system is driven by a short-stroke, spring-loaded piston housed above the
barrel, and the locking mechanism is what is known as a tilting breechblock. To
lock, it drops down into a solid shoulder of metal in the heavy receiver. The
gas system is fitted with a gas regulator behind the front sight base, allowing
adjustment of the gas system in response to environmental conditions, and a
separate gas plug can be closed completely to allow for the firing of rifle
grenades and manual loading.
The FAL's magazine capacity ranges from 5 to 30 rounds, with
most magazines holding 20 rounds. In fixed stock versions of the FAL, the
recoil spring is housed in the stock, while in folding-stock versions it is
housed in the receiver cover, necessitating a slightly different receiver
cover, recoil spring, and bolt carrier, and a modified lower receiver for the
stock.
FAL rifles have also been manufactured in both light and
heavy-barrel configurations, with the heavy barrel intended for automatic fire
as a section or squad light support weapon.
Among other 7.62x51mm NATO battle rifles at the time, the FN
FAL had relatively light recoil, due to the gas system being able to be tuned
via regulator in fore-end of the rifle, which allowed for excess gas which
would simply increase recoil to bleed off. In fully automatic mode, however,
the shooter receives considerable abuse from recoil, and the weapon climbs
off-target quickly, making automatic fire only of marginal effectiveness.
Many military forces using the FAL eventually eliminated
full-automatic firearms training in the light-barrel FAL.
The FN FAL was used by many forces throughout the world and
the SADF redesigned the weapon and this was produced under license by ARMSCOR.
After a competition between the German G3 rifle, the Armalite AR10, and the FN
FAL.
The South African Defence Force adopted three main variants
of the FAL: a rifle with the designation R1, a "lightweight" variant
of the FN FAL 50.64 with folding butt, fabricated locally under the designation
R2, and a model designed for police use not capable of automatic fire under the
designation R3. (200,000 were destroyed in UN-sponsored "Operation
Mouflon" in 2001). A number of other variants of the R1 were built, the R1
HB, which had a heavy barrel and bipod, the R1 Sniper, which could be fitted
with a scope and the R1 Para Carbine, which used a Single Point IR sight and
had a shorter barrel.
The R4 is a 5.56mm Assault rifle that was introduced into
service with the South African Defence Force (SADF) in 1982, replacing the
earlier 7.62mm FN FAL rifle, that was manufactured in South Africa under a
license agreement from FN as the R1. The R4 is produced by Denel Land Systems
(DLS), formerly Lyttleton Engineering Works and the weapon is basically a
licensed variant of the Israeli Galil assault rifle with several modifications,
notably, both the stock and magazine are now made of a high-strength Polymer
and the stock's arms were lengthened, adapting the weapon for the average South
African soldier.
The R4's Operating mechanism is a selective fire, gas
operated weapon that fires from a closed bolt. As with the Galil parent weapon,
the operating system is derived from that of the AK47.
The R4 is hammer-fired and uses a trigger mechanism with a
3-position fire selector and safety switch. The stamped sheet steel selector
bar is present on both sides of the receiver and its positions are marked with
letters: "S"— indicating the weapon is safe,
"R"—single-fire mode ("R" is an abbreviation for
"repeat"), and "A"—fully automatic fire. The
"safe" setting disables the trigger and secures the weapon from being
charged.
The R4 is fed from a synthetic box magazine with a 35-round
cartridge capacity (designed to use the 5.56x45mm Nato round) loaded in a
staggered configuration. The flash suppressor is slotted and doubles as an
adapter for launching rifle grenades. Bolted to a bracket in the gas block,
under the barrel, is a lightweight folding bipod (folds into the hand-guard),
which can also be used as a wire cutter.
The R4 has a side-folding tubular stock, which folds to the
right side of the receiver. The rifle's hand-guard, pistol grip, magazine,
stock arms and shoulder pad are all made from a synthetic material, making the
R4 lighter in weight than the equivalent original Galil model which uses
heavier metal and wood in these components.
For regular field maintenance and cleaning, the firearm is
disassembled into the following components: the receiver and barrel group, bolt
carrier, bolt, return mechanism, gas tube, receiver dust cover and magazine.
The rifle has conventional iron sights that consist of a
front post and a flip-up rear sight with 300 and 500 m apertures. The front
sight is adjustable for windage and elevation and is installed in a durable
circular shroud. The rear sight is welded at the end of the receiver's dust
cover. For night time use, the R4 is equipped with self-luminous tritium light
dots (exposed after placing the rear sight in an intermediate position)
installed in a pivoting bar to the front sight base, which folds up in front of
the standard post and aligns with two dots in the rear sight notch.
The R4 is issued with spare magazines, a cleaning kit and
sling.
The South African Navy and South African Air
Force adopted a short carbine version of the
5.56 mm Galil SAR, which was license-manufactured as the R5. The R5, when
compared to the larger R4, has a barrel that is 130 millimeters (5.1 in)
shorter, together with a shorter gas system and handguard. It also lacks a
bipod, and the flash hider does not support rifle grenades.
In the 1990s, an even more compact personal defence
weapon variant of the R5 was developed for armoured vehicle crews,
designated the R6, which has a further reduced barrel and a shortened gas
cylinder and piston assembly.
LIW/DLS also introduced a line of semi-automatic variants
of the R4, R5 and R6 called the LM4, LM5 and LM6 respectively, built for
civilian and law-enforcement users. Newly manufactured models include a top
Weaver rail for optics.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This website may contain copyrighted
material the use of which has not been pre-authorized by the copyright owner.
Such material is made available to advance understanding of political,
economic, scientific, social, art, media, and cultural issues. Material on this
site is distributed without profit to persons interested in such information
for research and educational purposes. If you want to use any copyrighted
material that may exist on this site for purposes that go beyond 'fair use',
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
