Australia , Vietnam The
Australian Army, as a late member of the Allied Rifle Committee along with the United Kingdom and Canada adopted the committee's improved version of the FAL rifle, designated the L1A1 rifle by Australia and Great Britain, and C1 by Canada. The Australian L1A1 is also known as the "self-loading rifle" (SLR), and in fully automatic form, the "automatic rifle". The Australian L1A1 features are almost identical to the British L1A1 version of FAL. The Australian L1A1 differs from its British counterpart in the design of the upper receiver lightening cuts. The lightening cuts of the Australian L1A1 most closely resembles the later Canadian C1 pattern, rather than the simplified and markedly unique British L1A1 cuts. The Australian L1A1 FAL rifle was in service with Australian forces until it was superseded by the
F88 Austeyr, a licence-built version of the
Steyr AUG, in 1988. Some remained in service with Reserve and training units until late 1990. Some Australian Army units deployed overseas on UN peacekeeping operations in Namibia, the Western Sahara, and Cambodia still used the L1A1 SLR and the
M16A1 rifle throughout the early 1990s. The British and Australian L1A1s, and Canadian C1A1 SLRs were semi-automatic only, unless battlefield conditions mandated that modifications be made. Australia, in co-ordination with Canada, developed a heavy-barrel version of the L1A1 as a fully automatic rifle variant, designated L2A1. The Australian heavy-barrel L2A1 was also known as the "automatic rifle" (AR). The L2A1 was similar to the FN FAL 50.41/42, but with a unique combined bipod-handguard and a receiver dust-cover mounted tangent rear sight from Canada. The L2A1 was intended to serve a role as a light fully automatic rifle or quasi-squad automatic weapon (SAW). The role of the L2A1 and other heavy barrel FAL variants is essentially the same in concept as the
Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) or
Bren, but the Bren was better suited to the role of a fire support base for a section, being designed for the role from the start. In practice many considered the L2A1 inferior to the Bren, as the Bren had a barrel that could be changed, and so could deliver a better continuous rate of fire, and was more accurate and controllable in the role due to its greater weight and better stock configuration. For this reason, Australia and Britain used the 7.62mm-converted L4 series Bren. Most countries that adopted the FAL rejected the heavy barrel FAL, presumably because it did not perform well in the machine gun role. Countries that embraced the heavy barrel FAL included Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, and Israel. Unique 30-round magazines were developed for the L2A1 rifles. These 30-round magazines were essentially lengthened versions of the standard 20-round L1A1 magazines, perfectly straight in design. Curved 30-round magazines from the L4A1 7.62 NATO conversion of the Bren are interchangeable with the 30-round L2A1 magazines, however they reputedly gave feeding difficulties due to the additional friction from the curved design as they must be inserted "upside down" in the L2A1. The L4A1 Bren magazines were developed as a top-mounted gravity-assisted feed magazine, the opposite of what is required for the L2A1 FAL. This was sometimes rectified by stretching magazine springs. The Australian L1A1/L2A1 rifles were produced by the
Lithgow Small Arms Factory, with approximately 220,000 L1A1 rifles produced between 1959 and 1986. L2A1 production was approximately 10,000 rifles produced between 1962 and 1982. Lithgow exported a large number of L1A1 rifles to many countries in the region. Among the users were New Zealand, Singapore and Papua New Guinea. , 1965 During the
Vietnam War, the SLR was the standard weapon issued to Australian infantrymen. Most Australian soldiers preferred the larger calibre weapon over the American
M16, because the SLR was substantially more reliable and its more powerful NATO 7.62 round could be trusted to kill an enemy soldier outright. The Australians' jungle warfare tactics used in Vietnam were refined by their experience in earlier jungle conflicts, e.g., the
Malayan Emergency and the
Konfrontasi campaign in
Borneo, and were considered far more threatening by their Viet Cong opponents than those employed by U.S. forces. The Australians considered the strengths and limitations of the SLR and its heavy ammunition load to be better suited to actual combat. Another product of Australian participation in the conflict in South-East Asia was the field modification of L1A1 and L2A1 rifles by the
Special Air Service Regiment for better handling. Nicknamed "the Bitch", these rifles were field modified, often from heavy barrel L2A1 automatic rifles, with their barrels cut off right in front of the gas blocks, and often with the L2A1 bipods removed to install
XM148 40 mm grenade launchers mounted below the barrels. Australia produced a shortened version of the L1A1 designated the L1A1-F1 for the Papua New Guinea Army, with less than 500 produced. The reduction in length was achieved by installing a shorter butt length and a shorter flash suppressor, reducing the length of the weapon by 2 1/4 inches. In 1970, a bullpup rifle known as the
KAL1 general purpose infantry rifle was built at the Small Arms Factory Lithgow using parts from the L1A1 rifle, but it never entered service.
Canada The
Canadian Armed Forces, the
Ontario Provincial Police and
Royal Canadian Mounted Police operated several versions, the most common being the C1A1, similar to the British L1A1 (which became more or less a Commonwealth standard), the main differences being a rotating disc rear sight graduated from and a two-piece firing pin. Users could fold the trigger guard into the pistol grip, which allowed them to wear mitts when firing the weapon. The Canadian rifle also had a shorter receiver cover than other Commonwealth variants to allow for refilling the magazine by charging it with
stripper clips. Canada was the first country to use the FAL. It served as Canada's standard battle rifle from the early 1950s to 1984. It was eventually phased out in favor of the lighter
Diemaco C7, a licence-built copy of the
M16, with a number of features borrowed from the A1, A2, and A3 variations of the AR platform assault rifle. Selective-fire variants of the initial C1 and the improved C1A1 version were made for the
Royal Canadian Navy, under the designations C1D and C1A1D. These weapons are identifiable by an
A for "automatic", carved or stamped into the butt stock.
India The
Rifle 7.62 mm 1A1, or the
Ishapore 1A1, is a copy of the L1A1 self-loading rifle. It is produced at
Ordnance Factory Tiruchirappalli of the
Ordnance Factories Board. It differs from the UK SLR in that the wooden butt-stock uses the butt-plate from the
Lee–Enfield with trap for oil bottle and cleaning pull-through, while copying some elements from metric FALs such as the bolt release. The 1A1 rifle has been replaced in service with the
Indian Army by the
INSAS 5.56mm assault rifle. It's also known as the
Ishapore Rifle since it was also made at
Rifle Factory Ishapore. They can be equipped with the 1A and 1A Long Blade bayonet, based on the L1A4 bayonet. A fully automatic version of the rifle (known as the
1C or
Ishapore 1C) is also available, meant for use in
BMP-2s via firing ports. It has full auto and semi auto modes. A muzzle is placed in the barrel in order to secure it on the firing ports. Production started in 1960 after the
Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE) evaluated several Australian, Belgian and British FAL rifles and each one was disassembled and examined. ARDE researchers began to make plans to make their own rifle after negotiations with FN were unsuccessful because of
royalty requirements and the clause that Belgian technicians help manage the production lines. 750 rifles were made per week. FN threatened a lawsuit when they learnt of the unlicensed variant. Then
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was not made aware of it and after he had heard it, offered to settle FN's complaints by agreeing to purchase additional Belgian-made FALs, FALOs and MAG 60.20 GPMGs. In 1998 onward, Ishapore 1A1, 1A and 1C were gradually withdrawn from service and replaced by the INSAS rifle. The Ishapore 1A1 and 1C is still in use by
Central Armed Police Forces, some law enforcement bodies and also used during parades by the
National Cadet Corps. In 2012, around 6,000 rifles were made annually in India. As of September 2019, around a million rifles had been made. In 2018, it was reported that the 1A1 was sold to the Kerala State Police.
New Zealand The New Zealand Army used the L1A1 as its standard service rifle for just under 30 years. The Labour government of Walter Nash approved the purchase of the L1A1 as a replacement for the No. 4 Mk 1 Lee–Enfield bolt-action rifle in 1959. An order for 15,000 L1A1 rifles was placed with the Lithgow Small Arms Factory in Australia which had been granted a license to produce the L1A1. The first batch of 500 rifles were delivered to the New Zealand Army in 1960. Deliveries continued at an increasing pace until the order for all 15,000 rifles was completed in 1965. As with Australian soldiers, the L1A1 was the preferred rifle of New Zealand Army and NZSAS troops during the Vietnam War, over the American M16 during the Vietnam War, as they used the same combat tactics as their Australian counterparts. After its adoption by the Army, the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Navy eventually acquired it. Unlike L1A1s in Australian service, New Zealand L1A1s later used British black plastic furniture, and some rifles even had a mixture of the two. The carrying handles were frequently cut off. The British SUIT (Sight Unit Infantry Trilux) optical sight was issued to some users in infantry units. The L2A1 heavy barrel variant was also issued as a limited standard, but was not popular due to the problems also encountered by other users of heavy barrel FAL variants. The L4A1 7.62mm conversion of the
Bren was much-preferred in New Zealand service. The
New Zealand Defence Force began replacing the L1A1 with the
Steyr AUG assault rifle in 1988 and were disposed through the Government Disposal Bureau in 1990. The Steyr AUG was phased out across all three services of the New Zealand Defence Force in 2016. The
Royal New Zealand Navy still uses the L1A1 for
line throwing between ships.
United Kingdom -built L1A1 in the
Swedish Army Museum The United Kingdom produced its own variant of the FN FAL incorporating the modifications developed by the Allied Rifle Committee, designating it the L1A1 Self Loading Rifle (SLR). The weapons were manufactured by the
Royal Small Arms Factory Enfield,
Birmingham Small Arms,
Royal Ordnance Factory and
ROF Fazakerley. After the production run ceased, replacement components were made by
Parker Hale Limited. The SLR served the
British Armed Forces from 1954 until approximately 1994, being replaced by the
L85A1 from 1985 onwards. The SLR was designed using
Imperial measurements and included several changes from the standard FN FAL. A significant change from the original FAL was that the L1A1 operates in
semi-automatic mode only due to the auto-sear parts not being installed, but otherwise is a select-fire-built rifle. Other changes include: the introduction of a folding
cocking handle; an enclosed slotted
flash suppressor; folding
rear sight; 'sand-cuts' modifications that provided space for limited sand or other dirt ingress into the upper receiver, bolt and bolt carrier; folding
trigger guard to allow use with Arctic mitts; strengthened
buttstock; enlarged
change lever and
magazine release catch; vertical stripping catch to prevent unintended activation; deletion of the automatic hold-open device and the addition of retaining tabs at the rear of the top cover to prevent forward movement of the top cover (and resulting loss of zero) when the L2A1 SUIT was fitted. The flash suppressor is fitted with a
lug which allows the fitting of an L1-series
bayonet, an L1A1/A2 or L6A1 blank firing attachment or an L1A1/A2 Energa
rifle grenade launcher. Initial production rifles were fitted with walnut furniture, consisting of the pistol grip, forward handguard, carrying handle and butt. The wood was treated with oil to protect against moisture, but not varnished or polished. Later production weapons were produced with
synthetic furniture. The material used was Maranyl, a
nylon 6-6 and
fibreglass composite. The Maranyl parts have a "pebbled" anti-slip texture along with a butt has a separate butt-pad, available in four lengths to allow the rifle to be fitted to individual users. There was a special short butt designed for use with Arctic clothing or body armour, which incorporated fixing points for an Arctic chest sling system. After the introduction of the Maranyl furniture, as extra supplies became available it was retrofitted to older rifles as they underwent scheduled maintenance. This resulted in a mixture of wooden and Maranyl furniture within units and often on the same rifle. Wooden furniture was still in use in some
Territorial Army units and in limited numbers with the
RAF until at least 1989. The SLR
selector has two settings (rather than the three that most metric FALs have),
safety and
semi-automatic, which are marked 'S' (safe) and 'R' (repetition.) The magazine from the 7.62mm
L4 light machine gun will fit the SLR.
Commonwealth magazines were produced with a lug brazed onto the front to engage the recess in the receiver, in place of a smaller pressed dimple on the metric FAL magazine. As a consequence of this, metric FAL magazines can sometimes be used with the Commonwealth SLR if the fit happens to work out properly, but SLR magazines will not fit the metric FAL. Despite the British, Australian and Canadian versions of the FAL being manufactured using machine tools which utilised the Imperial measurement system, they are all of the same basic dimensions. Parts incompatibilities between the original FAL and the L1A1 are due to pattern differences, not due to the different dimensions. Confusions over the differences has given rise to the terminology of "metric" and "inch" FAL rifles, which originated as a reference to the machine tools which produced them. Despite this, virtually all FAL rifles are of the same basic dimensions, true to the original Belgian FN FAL. In the US, the term "metric FAL" refers to guns of the Belgian FAL pattern, whereas "inch FAL" refers to ones produced to the Commonwealth L1A1/C1 pattern. SLRs could be modified at unit level to take two additional sighting systems. The first was the "
Hythe sight", formally known as the "Conversion Kit, 7.62mm Rifle Sight, Trilux, L5A1" (L5A2 and L5A3 variants with different foresight inserts also existed) and intended for use in
close range and in poor lighting conditions. The sight incorporated two rear sight aperture leaves and a
tritium illuminated foresight insert for improved night visibility, which had to be replaced after a period of time due to
radioactive decay. The first rear sight leaf had a aperture which could be used alone for night shooting or the second leaf could be raised in front of it, superimposing a aperture for day shooting. The second sight was the
L2A2 "Sight Unit, Infantry, Trilux" (SUIT), a 4×
optical sight which mounted on a rail welded to a top cover. Issued to the British Infantry, Royal Marines and
RAF Regiment, the SUIT featured a prismatic offset design, which reduced the length of the sight and improved clearance around the
action. Also, the prismatic offset design helped to reduce
parallax errors and
heat mirage from the barrel as it heated up during firing. The aiming mark was an inverted, tapered perspex pillar ending in a point which could be illuminated by a tritium element for use in low light conditions. The inverted sight post allowed rapid target
re-acquisition of the target after the
recoil of the firearm raised the muzzle. The sight was somewhat heavy, but due to its solid construction was durable and robust. The SLR was officially replaced in 1985 by the
bullpup design
L85A1 service rifle, firing the
5.56×45mm NATO cartridge. The armed forces were re-equipped by 1994 and during this period the L1A1 rifles were gradually phased out. Most were either destroyed or sold, with some going to Sierra Leone. Several thousand were sent to the US and sold as parts kits, and others were refurbished by LuxDefTec in Luxembourg and are still on sale to the European market. ==Gallery==