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THE AR-15: ORIGINS • Background • In the late 19th century, small-arms cartridges had become able to fire accurately at long distances. Smokeless powder propelling small jacketed bullets were lethal out to 2,000 yards. • Units of riflemen firing in salvos (volley fire) could hit grouped soft targets at those ranges. • This fighting style was taken over by the widespread introduction of machine guns to make use of the powerful cartridges to suppress the enemy at long range. • Weapons for short range were semi-automatic pistols, and later automatic submachine guns, firing small pistol rounds. • The gap in cartridge ranges caused research into creating an intermediate round. This type of ammunition was being considered as early as 1892, but militaries at the time were still fixated on increasing the maximum range and velocity of bullets from their rifles. 2 THE AR-15: ORIGINS • World War I • The rifles with which the European powers went to the First World War in 1914 were impressive pieces of machinery. Their mechanisms and barrels were expertly machined from the finest steels, and their stocks were carved from high grade wood. • These battle rifles used powerful cartridges that were capable of launching heavy bullets (150 – 200 grain) of about .30 caliber at velocities between 2,400 and 2,900 feet per second. Their sights were finely calibrated and precision machined as well – still graduated to hit a man- sized target at distances up to 2,000 yards. • The tactical assumptions leading to these technical specifications had changed little since the Napoleonic Wars had been fought a century earlier. Within six months of the commencement of hostilities, it was obvious to the troops in the trenches that their tactics, and to a great extent, their weapons, had been eclipsed by the changed circumstances of modern war. • Despite this, tactics remained largely unchanged until the waning days of the war in 1918. Weapons, however, were to remain largely the same throughout both the First and Second World Wars 3 THE AR-15: ORIGINS • World War II • In 1942 or so, the German invasion of the Soviet Union had reached its high water mark. German operations in Russia were conducted against a numerically superior foe that was not averse to a liberal expenditure of lives in the conquest of each objective. • German forces needed a way to increase the firepower available to a generic infantry unit. This could most efficiently be done by providing each rifleman with a weapon capable of fully automatic fire – like a machine gun. • The use of fully automatic fire created a demand for far larger amounts of ammunition, increasing the total number of rounds each rifleman would need to carry into battle. • Fully automatic fire demanded a very heavy firearm in order to allow the rifleman to maintain control during the serial recoil forces generated during rapid firing. 4 THE AR-15: ORIGINS • World War II • These problems were solved by an astute assessment of the tactical realities. The target in most infantry combat was not a man standing 2,000 yards away, but rather a camouflaged figure hugging the Earth. In fact, most soldiers could not identify a target at a distance of greater than 400 yards, much less engage it effectively. • German designers reasoned that there was no use in specifiying the use of a cartridge lethal at 2,000 yards. A less powerful cartridge suitable for 400 – 500 yards would be more than adequate. • A smaller, shorter, and less powerful round would save materials, allow soldiers to carry more ammunition, and increase firepower. Less recoil would allow semi-automatic or even fully automatic select-fire rifles • These revolutionary new cartridges were dubbed “intermediate cartridges” as they were more powerful than pistol cartridges but much less so than conventional infantry rifle cartridges. • In response to the evolving tactical environment, the German Army Weapons Office issued contracts for the development of a selective fire carbine using a new 7.92x33mm cartridge. 5 ASSAULT RIFLE - DEFINITION • “In addition to the firepower question, the designers created a weapon whose concept of employment permitted it to be a general issue arm suitable for both front line infantry as well as support troops. • It was short enough to be maneuvered inside the confines of a tactical vehicle, and,equipped with a pistol grip, the rifle could be fired from the hip – an advantage in urban and close quarters combat. • With these features, the technical characteristics of the assault rifle were defined. Specifically, for a firearm to be accurately classified as an assault rifle, it must: a. Be capable of selective fire; b. Be chambered for an intermediate cartridge; and c. Be capable of being fired from the hip or the shoulder. • Miss any one of the three, and, within the greater firearms taxonomy, the firearm is simply not an assault rifle.” 6 THE AR-15 - ORIGINS • StG 44 Sturmgewehr (Germany - 1944) • The StG 44 combined the characteristics of a carbine, submachine gun, and automatic rifle. It fired an intermediate sized cartridge, 7.92x33mm, was gas-operated, and had a high capacity, removeable magazine. • According to the legend, the name was chosen personally by Adolf Hitler for propaganda reasons and literally means "storm rifle" as in "to storm (i.e. "assault") an enemy position," although some sources dispute that Hitler had much to do with coining the new name besides signing the order. • After the adoption of the StG 44, the English translation “assault rifle" became the accepted designation for this type of infantry small arm. 7 STG 44 STURMGEWEHR • The rifle was chambered for the 7.92x33mm Kurz cartridge. This shorter version of the German standard (7.92x57mm) rifle round, in combination with the weapon's selective-fire design, provided a compromise between the controllable firepower of a submachine gun at close quarters with the accuracy and power of a Karabiner 98K bolt action rifle at intermediate ranges. • While the StG44 had less range and power than the more powerful infantry rifles of the day, Army studies had shown that few combat engagements occurred at more than 300m and the majority within 200m. Full-power rifle cartridges were excessive for the vast majority of uses for the average soldier. 8 STG 44 STURMGEWEHR • According to the wartime U.S. War Department publication Tactical and Technical Trends the accuracy of the StG 44 "...is excellent for a weapon of its type. Its effective range is about 400 yards. • Automatic fire was "advised only in emergencies“, this was mainly to make sure that the regular soldier didn't waste his ammunition spraying at targets, but instead fired in short accurate bursts to achieve maximum accuracy and effect. • The StG 44's receiver was made of heavy stamped and welded steel as were other contemporary arms such as the MP 40 and MG 42. However, this made for a fairly heavy rifle, especially one firing an intermediate-power cartridge. Difficulties with fabrication, the need to use available non-priority steels, and the conditions of war resulted in a heavy receiver. 9 SKS & AK-47 • SKS: Simonov • Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov (1894–1986) was a Soviet weapons designer; he is one of the fathers of the modern assault rifle. • Mostly known for the Samozaryadnyi Karabin sistemi Simonova, 1945 (Self-loading Carbine, Simonov's system, 1945), or SKS carbine, he also pioneered the assault and semi-automatic rifle field in the 1920s and 1930s, mostly under the supervision of both Vladimir Fedorov and Fedor Tokarev. His early work preceded both the M1 Garand, and the later M1 Carbine, AK-47, and M16 series. 10 SKS: SIMONOV • By 1943, advances in thinking — which would soon be confirmed by the successful German Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle - led the Soviet Union to adopt a shorter, less powerful round, the 7.62 x 39mm M1943 (also known as "7.62 Soviet" or "7.62 short" to differentiate it from the existing 7.62x54mm cartridge, and others). • Field trials of the new rifle proved the weapon and, in 1944 a pre- production run of the SKS went to the Byelorussian front for battlefield trials. • After some tweaking, it was officially adopted and designated the 7.62 Samozaryadnyi Karabin Sistemy Simonova Obrazets 1945g (translated, "7.62 Self-loading Carbine System Simonov model year 1945"), and chosen as the ideal replacement for the SVT-40. • The SKS was gas-operated, with a high capacity, fixed magazine. • And, because no one could pronounce all those words, they just called it the “SKS”… 11 AK-47: KALISHNIKOV • Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov (1919 - 2013) was a famous Russian firearms engineer. And, he liked • In October 1941 Kalashnikov was badly wounded in big hats… combat. He started to create his first gun designs in a hospital and soon joined the Moscow Aviation Institute. • While working there Kalashnikov produced a number of innovations for tanks. In several years, he was promoted to the position of chief engineer. • In 1947, he designed the AK (Avtomat Kalashnikova). In 1949 the AK-47 became operational in the Red Army; and would become Kalashnikov's most famous invention. 12 EUGENE STONER • Eugene Morrison Stoner (1922 - 1997) was a firearms designer who is most associated with the development of the AR-15 rifle that was adopted by the US military as the M16. • He is regarded by some historians as one of the most successful firearms designers of the 20th century, along with John Moses Browning and Mikhail Kalashnikov. • In late 1945 he began working in the machine shop for Whittaker, an aircraft equipment company, and ultimately became a Design Engineer. Probably wearing a pocket protector… 13 EUGENE STONER • In 1954 he came to work as chief engineer for ArmaLite, a division of Fairchild Engine & Airplane Corporation.

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