AR-10: История создания и эволюция штурмовой винтовки.

The ArmaLite AR 10 is a 7.62×51mm NATO battle rifle designed by Eugene Stoner in the late 1950s and manufactured by ArmaLite (then a division of the Fairchild Aircraft Corporation). When first introduced in 1956, the AR 10 used an innovative combination of a straight line barrel/stock design with phenolic composite, a new patent filed gas operated bolt and carrier system and forged alloy parts resulting in a small arm significantly easier to control in automatic fire and over lighter than other infantry rifles of the day. Over its production life, the original AR 10 was built in relatively small numbers, with fewer than 10,000 rifles assembled. However, the ArmaLite AR 10 would become the progenitor for a wide range of firearms. In 1957, the basic AR 10 design was rescaled and substantially modified by ArmaLite to accommodate the .223 Remington cartridge, and given the designation ArmaLite AR 15. After modifications (most notably, the charging handle was re located from under the carrying handle like AR 10 to the rear of the receiver), the new redesigned rifle (the AR 15) was subsequently adopted by the U. S. military as the M16 rifle. Colt continued to use the AR 15 trademark for its line of semi automatic only rifles, which it marketed to civilian and law enforcement customers as the Colt AR 15.

ArmaLite began as a small engineering concern founded by George Sullivan, the patent counsel for Lockheed Corporation, and funded by Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation. On October 1, 1954, the company was incorporated as the ArmaLite Corporation, becoming a subdivision of Fairchild. With its limited capital and tiny machine shop, ArmaLite was never intended to be an arms manufacturer. hired several employees, and began work on a prototype for a lightweight survival rifle for use by downed aircrew. The first prototypes of the 7.62 mm AR 10 emerged between 1955 and early 1956. At the time, the United States Army was in the midst of testing several rifles to replace the obsolete M1 Garand. Springfield Armory's T44E4 and heavier T44E5 were essentially updated versions of the Garand chambered for the new 7.62 mm round, while Fabrique Nationale submitted their FN FAL as the T48. ArmaLite's AR 10 entered the competition late, hurriedly submitting two hand built "production" AR 10 rifles based on the fourth prototype in the fall of 1956 to the United States Army's Springfield Armory for testing. The AR 10 prototypes (four in all) featured a straight line stock design, rugged elevated sights, an oversized aluminum flash suppressor and recoil compensator, and an adjustable gas system. In the fourth and final prototype, the upper and lower receiver were hinged with the now familiar hinge and takedown pins, and the charging handle did not reciprocate and was not attached to the bolt carrier. The rifle's aluminum/steel composite barrel (an untried prototype design specified for the tests by ArmaLite's president, George Sullivan, over Stoner's vehement objections) burst in a torture test conducted by Springfield Armory in early 1957. ArmaLite quickly replaced it with a conventional steel barrel, but the damage had been done. The final Springfield Armory report advised against the adoption of the rifle, stating that it would take "five years or more to take it through tests to adoption". Attempts to rush completion of these fifty rifles resulted in a few units that were assembled with improperly machined barrel extensions, a defect that went unnoticed at the time. The order was contingent on a successful completion of a 7,500 round endurance test. With the AR 10 in short supply, Cummings left his personal demonstrator rifle with Nicaragua's chief military commander, General Anastasio Somoza, who personally conducted the endurance test trial. While General Somoza was firing this rifle for the trial, the bolt lug over the ejector sheared off and flew past Somoza's head. The general angrily returned Cummings' AR 10 and canceled the entire Nicaraguan order. The remaining Hollywood rifles were inspected and refitted as necessary with new parts to prevent the reoccurrence of the bolt lug failure, but the Nicaraguan order was lost for good. In addition to designing and building tooling for the rifle, the design had to be converted to metric dimensions and subcontractors had to be found to supply materials or manufacture component parts. ArmaLite also continued to send A. I. product improvement requests, including an adjustable regulator, a repositioned gas tube, and a new three prong flash suppressor. The Sudanese model weighed only with an empty magazine. All AR 10s, whether produced by ArmaLite or by A. I., used the same Stoner designed 20 round lightweight aluminum 'waffle' magazine with pressed in, corrugated sides, intended to be discarded in combat once emptied. AR 10 production was limited, though Guatemala, Sudanese AR 10s were employed in frequent clashes with guerrilla forces and conflicts with neighboring countries, and a few captured rifles eventually turned up in unofficial service with various African and colonial armies, police, and guerrilla forces. The AR 10 remained in service with Sudanese Special Forces until 1985. In 1958, a special 7.62×39mm caliber variant of the Sudanese AR 10 was produced in very small numbers for evaluation by Finland and Germany. That same year, an AR 10 with a 16" barrel was developed in response to a request by KLM Airlines for a carbine that could be issued to their crew for transpolar flights as part of an Arctic survival kit, and approximately 30 carbines were eventually produced. The Italian Navy acquired the AR 10 for its COMSUBIN underwater commando teams. Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Finland, and South Africa also purchased small numbers of the AR 10 for test purposes, and Cuba's Batista government ordered 100 "Transitional" model rifles in 1958. The Cuban order was delivered to Havana, but in December 1958 Fidel Castro's forces took control of the country, including the warehouse containing the AR 10 shipment. In 1959, in response to a letter from ArmaLite's sales agent Sam Cummings, Castro invited Cummings to Havana to discuss payment for the AR 10 rifles. Fidel, his brother Raúl, and Che Guevara test fired the AR 10 outside Havana. Castro paid Cummings for all 100 rifles. The invaders were defeated by the Dominican Army, and AR 10 rifles from the Batista shipment were found on the bodies of guerrillas. The final Artillerie Inrichtingen design is known as the Portuguese model AR 10. This final version incorporated all that had been learned to date about the AR 10, including infantry service rifle and field test reports. In addition to a heavier barrel with chrome lined chamber, optional bipod, and the removable plastic/metal handguards of the Transitional model, the Portuguese variant had wider bolt lugs, a stronger extractor, a new simplified three position gas regulator, and a cocking handle featuring a forward bolt assist. It is believed that approximately 4,000 5,000 Portuguese variants were produced; nearly all of them were sold to the Portuguese National Defense Ministry by the Brussels based arms dealer SIDEM International in 1960. Portuguese paratroopers found the AR 10 to be not only accurate but reliable in combat, despite rugged service conditions in African jungle and savannah. A few Portuguese and Sudanese model AR 10s found their way by various means to nearby African countries; in Chad, the AR 10 was much appreciated by members of the French Foreign Legion. As one police instructor in the Congo stated, "It was a good combat weapon that never failed me; a bit too long (but not as bad as the FAL or M14) for house to house work or really heavy brush, but great for 400 800 meters, in the flats and really nice on the body, after wandering around 12 14 hours looking for bad guys." Some Portuguese model AR 10s were fitted with A. I. modified upper receivers in order to mount 3× or 3.6× telescopic sights. These rifles were used by marksmen accompanying small patrols to eliminate individual enemies at extended ranges in open country. Other AR 10s were used by the paratroopers in a secondary role to launch rifle grenades. The AR 10's built in gas cutoff design enabled it to fire Energa rifle grenades without adjustment of the gas system, and the self loading action would even eject the spent blank shells and load the next one, allowing several grenades to be quickly fired. The added recoil took its toll on rifle stocks, and some Portuguese rifles were retrofitted with all metal butt stocks to better withstand the strain caused by firing the heavy grenades. Fairchild ArmaLite was dissatisfied with the delays in setting up the tooling and production at A. I. for the AR 10, and made it clear that they would not be renewing A. I. 's license to produce the rifle. By 1960, hampered by Dutch export restrictions and discouraged by the lack of arms sales to major national purchasers, Artillerie Inrichtingen decided to exit the small arms production business altogether, and ceased all production of the AR 10 under its license from Fairchild ArmaLite. By that time, fewer than 10,000 AR 10s had been produced, mostly military select fire rifles, with a few semi automatic only rifles produced for civilian use. All A. I. AR 10 parts inventories, tooling, and prototypes were either sold or scrapped; the barrel tooling was sold to Israel sometime in the early 1960s. All AR 10 production records, design drawings, manuals, literature, and other publications then in inventory were discarded. Most of the AR 10 ex military rifles shipped to the United States were in the form of parts kits, having been previously dismantled, though a few were legally imported as National Firearms Act (NFA) weapons. Large numbers of AR 10 7.62 mm magazines were imported as well. Many of these kit rifles were combined with various semi auto receivers made by civilian manufacturers in order to permit legal ownership. During the early 1980s, Paragon Sales and Services in Joliet, Illinois, manufactured new semi automatic lower receivers while using imported upper AR 10 receivers originally manufactured by Artillerie Inrichtingen in the Netherlands. In 1957, in an effort to increase profits from the ArmaLite venture, Fairchild decided to compete in the U. S. Army's CONARC requirement for a new six pound, high velocity, .22 caliber selective fire rifle accurate to 500 yards. In response, ArmaLite engineers Eugene Stoner, Jim Sullivan, and Bob Fremont used the basic AR 10 design to produce the ArmaLite AR 15 in .223 Remington, which was completed as a firing prototype in 1958. Fairchild ArmaLite continued its efforts to sell both the AR 10 and AR 15 to various military forces around the world. However, the AR 10 rifle marketed by ArmaLite after 1958 was not the product improved AR 10 developed by Artillerie Inrichtingen, but rather a design scaled up from AR 15 plans and specifications, the AR 10A. None of the improvements incorporated by Artillerie Inrichtingen over three years of production were used in the new AR 10A. Although the AR 10A did not benefit from the modifications undertaken by the Dutch licensee, it had some differences from the AR 15 (besides caliber and part dimensions), including a different bolt, trigger, and cocking handle design, along with a magazine canted forward at a five degree angle. In 1959, ArmaLite sold its rights to the AR 10 and AR 15 to Colt Firearms due to financial difficulties, and limitations in terms of manpower and production capacity. While mostly an original design, the AR 10 built upon previously proven concepts. From the FAL it took the hinged receiver system allowing the rifle to be opened for cleaning much like a break action shotgun. The ejection port cover is similar to that found on the German World War II era StG44. The bolt locking mechanism is similar to the M1941 Johnson rifle (itself an adaptation of the Browning designed Remington Model 8 bolt). From the German MG 13 light machine gun, FG 42 and M1941 Johnson machine gun came the idea of the straight line stock layout. A "straight line" recoil configuration increases controllability during burst or automatic fire by reducing muzzle climb. The AR 10's method of rotary bolt locking, straight line recoil, and gas operation enhanced its inherent accuracy. The original AR 10 action (later developed into the ArmaLite AR 15 and M16 rifle) designed by Eugene Stoner is commonly called a direct impingement system, but it does not utilize a conventional direct impingement system. In , the designer states: The stock is made from a fiberglass reinforced phenolic composite with a core of rigid plastic foam. The handguards and pistol grip are also fiberglass reinforced plastic. Fairchild was an aircraft manufacturer, and the use of plastics, titanium, and aluminum were common in the aircraft industry at the time, though not generally used in firearms. Several experimental prototypes of a belt fed variant of the AR 10 were developed by ArmaLite and A. I. engineers, informally designated the AR 10 LMG. In one version, the belt was fed by a feed chute connected to a 250 round ammo box carried on the user's back. All of the belt fed prototypes experienced numerous issues with feed malfunctions and parts breakages, and these problems were never wholly solved during the weapon's development stage, which ended with the termination of A. I. 's production contract. As a result, no AR 10 LMG variants were ever sold.

In 1995, former Army Ordnance officer Mark Westrom, owner of Eagle Arms, purchased the ArmaLite brand and the company became ArmaLite Inc. Shortly thereafter, ArmaLite Inc. introduced the completely new semi automatic only AR 10B rifle series. Notably, the AR 10B was not designed using the original AR 10 drawings from either ArmaLite or Artillerie Inrichtingen, but instead was based on the AR 15A2, with parts scaled up or redesigned as needed to fire the 7.62×51mm NATO (.308 Winchester) cartridge. The AR 10B prototype was composed of individual sub components tested on a special lower receiver made of two slabs of aluminum fitted to a Knight's Armament Company SR 25 upper receiver assembly, and prototyped using computer analysis. The full prototype AR 10B was the first rifle off the production line. ArmaLite reintroduced their original magazine pattern with their new AR 10A model in 2012 (also called SR 25 pattern magazine).

ArmaLite offers numerous other chamberings for the AR10 including: .243 Winchester, .260 Remington, 6.5mm Creedmoor, 7mm 08 Remington, and .338 Federal. Manufacturers of these barrels include Ballistic Advantage, Wilson Combat, and DPMS Panther Arms.