Modern Firearms - Ar-15 – type semi-automatic rifles
The family of semi-automatic rifles, based on the original Armalite Ar-15 / Colt M16 automatic rifles, is one of the broadest and most popular in the world. Weapons based on same basic design features and same basic specifications, originally established by Colt and approved by US Government (so called Mil-Spec, for “Military specifications”) are manufactured in hundreds of versions and configurations, dozens of calibers and in many countries of the world. Obviously, the USA is the major source and consumer of these rifles, but similar weapons also are manufactured in Canada, Czech republic, China, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland and even Russia and Ukraine.
History and present.
The AR-15 designation itself comes from the Armalite division of the Fairchild Republic Corporation, which originally developed this rifle during second half of the 1950s as its fifteenth weapon project. Colt bought AR-15 rifle design and manufacturing rights from Armalite in 1959. More details on the origins of the AR-15 military rifles can be found in the
M16 rifle article.
Original Ar-15 “Sporter” rifles were manufactured for civilian market by Colt since 1963. These were no more than semi-automatic versions of the original AR-15, M16 and M16A1 rifles, with basically same external appearance and furniture. Initial popularity of these semi-automatic weapons was quite limited. Things began to change gradually in late 1980s and early 1990s, as M16A2 rifle proved itself well as a military weapon, and Colt began to manufacture its semi-automatic only, civilian-legal AR-15A2 “Sporter” and “Match Target” versions. Several other companies soon joined the club, manufacturing rifles based on aforementioned military specifications to assume parts interchangeability.
