The FN FAL, aka the right arm of the free world, aka the gun America should have picked over the M14, is one of the world’s most popular battle rifles. The FAL series served most of the Western democracies in the world and serves to this day with a variety of nations without the budget to acquire F35s. From the beginning, there have been a number of oddballs, from prototypes to war-fighting fielded FALs. Let’s examine some of these historically atypical FALs.
FN Universal Carbine
The FN Universal Carbine was the very first FAL. It was 1947, and the idea of the assault rifle was a hot commodity. The first caliber the FAL chambered was the 7.92x33mm Kurz round. This same round was famously designed for the STG 44. It’s worth noting it doesn’t seem like FN ever intended to chamber the gun in 7.92x33mm Kurz.
FN used the cartridge to make a functioning gun while waiting for the new NATO cartridge to rear its head. The concept of an assault rifle existed, but the Western forces were looking at full-powered rifle rounds. FN is a Belgian company, but the original Universal Carbine was produced in the U.K.
Belgian engineers who fled from the Nazi occupation worked at TSAF Enfield and built the weapon there. At first glance, it’s an uncanny valley version of the FAL, but you can see the gun’s origins clear as day.
The FAL .280 Experimental Automatic Carbine, Short Model
Another experimental prototype took the FAL and converted it to a bullpup. The British really loved this idea of bullpup rifles and experimented with them a ton before settling on the standard FAL. The bullpup variant looks almost nothing like a FAL. There is some resemblance in the receiver, but not much.
The engineers experimented with the British .280 caliber round. The Brits were throwing a lot of weight behind the cartridge. It is a 7x43mm round that’s a bit of a mutt. It’s not quite a full-powered rifle round and not quite an intermediate caliber. The Brits pushed hard for this round and experimented with it in a number of designs.
The FAL .280 Experimental Automatic Carbine Short Model was found to be unreliable and uncomfortable to shoot. Thus, the idea of a bullpup FAL was killed. However, the Brits still worked on developing the EM series of .280 caliber bullpups.
FN FAL SALVO Model
Speaking of the EM series, the EM designer Stefan Kenneth Janson came to America and worked for Olin-Winchester. In the 1950s, the US Military worked on Project SALVO, which aimed to provide a weapon that could fire multiple projectiles to increase hit probability. The SALVO series incorporated numerous ideas, including weapons with multiple barrels.
Stefan Janson developed a twin-barreled FN FAL rifle for the contest while working for Olin-Winchester. He grafted two FALs together. The guns had a custom-built receiver, and they shared a single gas system. Each barrel had its own magazine, and the gun held forty rounds total.
The SALVO FAL fired the 5.56 T56 Duplex Cartridges. These cartridges held two projectiles per case. One projectile weighed 35 grains, and the other weighed 41 grains. With two barrels firing duplex rounds, the weapon fired four rounds per trigger pull. The downside was intense recoil, which sidelined the gun.
Israeli FALO
For a very long time, the Israeli forces carried a hodgepodge of different firearms. This includes a mix of battle rifles from World War II and handguns from everywhere. It was a logistical nightmare. To standardize their weapons, they adopted the FN FAL and the Uzi. They ordered two FAL variants: a standard model and a heavy-barrel model.
The Heavy barrel model, known as the FALO, was utilized as a squad automatic support weapon. Outside of the heavy barrel, the gun featured a perforated metal sleeve around the barrel, a heat shield inside the wooden handguard, and a folding bipod. The gun integrated into the squad well, and it was noted to be efficient because of its ability to share magazines with the rest of the squad.
Israeli forces built their tactics around the support weapon. It proved to be fairly effective during the Suez Crisis. The FALO served until the early 1970s when Israelis moved away from the battle rifle and into the assault rifle. They remained in service with reserve forces and are likely still bouncing around some Israeli police armory.
The FN FAL – Beyond Successful
The FN FAL is the western AK. It’s spread far and wide amongst a wide variety of different countries. The FAL still functions quite well, even on modern battlefields. There are a lot worse guns to carry. Its success and widespread use guarantee that a few weird and atypical options will rear their ugly head.
