L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle
The L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle, also known by the initial Canadian designation C1, or in the U.S. as the "inch pattern" FAL, is a British version of the Belgian FN FAL battle rifle. The L1A1 was produced under licence and adopted by the armed forces of the Commonwealth of Nations, mainly by United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, Jamaica, Malaysia, New Zealand, Rhodesia and Singapore.
The L1A1 is manufactured to a slightly modified design using British imperial units, not the metric units of the original Belgian FAL. Many sub-assemblies are interchangeable between the two types, while components of those sub-assemblies may not be compatible. Notable incompatibilities include the magazine and the stock.
Most Commonwealth pattern FALs are semi-automatic only. A variant named L2A1/C2A1, meant to serve as an automatic rifle/light machine gun in a support role, is also capable of fully automatic fire. Differences from the L1A1/C1 include a heavy barrel, squared front sight, a handguard that doubles as a foldable bipod, and a larger 30-round magazine although it could also use the normal 20-round magazines. Only Canada and Australia used this variant. Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom used the Bren light machine guns converted to fire the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge for use in the support role. Canadian C1s issued to naval vessels for boarding party usage were also capable of fully automatic fire.
History
The L1A1 and other inch-pattern derivatives trace their lineage back to the Allied Rifle Commission of the 1950s, whose intention was to introduce a single rifle and cartridge that would serve as standard issue for all NATO countries. They originally adopted the Rifle No. 9 Mk 1 chambered for a 7mm intermediate cartridge. To meet this plan and strengthen ties with the United States, the United Kingdom soon dropped the No.9 rifle in favor of the Belgian FAL chambered for the newly proposed American 7.62×51mm cartridge. Based on Canada's experiments with the FAL that led to the C1A1, the United Kingdom and Australia adopted the L1A1 as their new service rifle in 1954.NATO standardized on the 7.62mm NATO cartridge in 1954, but did not adopt a standard rifle. Most adopted a native design chambered for 7.62mm NATO, with Germany eventually adopting the G3 and the United States adopting the M14. Even the C1A1 and L1A1 used inch measurements and were not interchangeable with the FAL's metric parts. France's participation was to adopt a natively-designed service rifle that used their national 7.5mm MAS rifle cartridge.
The British experimental version of the FAL initially used an 8-round "horseshoe charger" that was based on an experimental 10-round Belgian design. The operator would open the bolt and place the charger into guide rails over the chamber. The rounds would then be slid down into the detachable box magazine through the bolt. The 8-round horseshoe charger was replaced in trials with a 5-round model due to problems with them becoming damaged when packed in pouches or bandoliers. The 5-round horseshoe charger had similar problems and was replaced with an conventional straight 5-round charger.
The L1A1 subsequently served as the UK's first-line battle rifle up to the 1980s before being replaced by the 5.56mm L85A1.
Combat service
The L1A1 and variants have seen use in several conflicts, including as part of the Cold War. L1A1s have been used by the British Armed Forces in Malaysia, Northern Ireland, and in the Falklands War, the First Gulf War, and by the State of Kuwait Army during the First Gulf War.It was used by Australia and New Zealand in Vietnam, by the Indian Army in the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars and by various paramilitary and state police forces in counter insurgency operations up to the early 1990s, by Nigerian and Biafran forces during Nigerian Civil War and by Rhodesia in the Rhodesian Bush War.
Replacement
Starting in the mid-1980s, the United Kingdom started replacing its 30-year-old L1A1 rifle with the 5.56 NATO bullpup design L85A1 assault rifle. Australia chose the Steyr AUG as a replacement in the form of the F88 Austeyr, with New Zealand following suit shortly after. Canada replaced its C1 rifle with AR-15 variants, such as the C7 service rifle and C8 carbine.Australia replaced its L2A1 heavy barrel support weapons with M60s and later with an FN Minimi variant: the F89. Canada replaced its C2 heavy barrel support weapons with an FN Minimi variant: the C9, respectively.
Production and use
Australia
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", 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". 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. The role of the L2A1 and other heavy barrel FAL variants is essentially the same in concept as the Browning Automatic Rifle 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.
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. The XM148 40 mm grenade launchers were obtained from U.S. forces. For the L1A1, the lack of fully automatic fire resulted in the unofficial conversion of the L1A1 to full-auto capability by using lower receivers from the L2A1, which works by restricting trigger movement.
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.