Variants
The M96 has been offered in a 20" barrel rifle version (the "Expeditionary Rifle"), a 17.5" barreled carbine (no special name), a 16" barreled carbine (the "Recon Carbine"), and a 17.5" barreled top-feed carbine ("Bren" configuration). The M96 is nearly identical in external appearance to the Stoner 63 rifle/light machine gun, and was designed to be modular and configurable like the Stoner. However, the M96 has a somewhat different internal mechanism and is semi-auto only. No internal parts exchange between the M96 and the Stoner 63.
In the mid-1990s an US-based Class-III manufacturer (Arms-Tech Ltd. located in Phoenix, Arizona) offered the "Revere" M96-A1 weapon system on the Law Enforcement market. It was basically a selective-fire conversion system that turned the standard M96 rifle in either a "Commando" 16" barreled STANAG magazine-fed carbine or a 20" barreledSquad Automatic Weapon.
The M96 has a relatively small following, probably due in large part to its high price and new manufacturer. There do not appear to have been any military or law enforcement sales of the M96, probably for the same reasons. As of 2012, the rifle is currently no longer in production.
Read more about this topic: Robinson Armament M96 Expeditionary
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