Development
The rifle was developed between 1975–1977 for NATO standardization trials. The rifle’s design is based on the FNC 76 prototype, which itself traces back to the unsuccessful CAL rifle. It was soon withdrawn from the NATO competition after performing poorly due to its expedient development. Later trials for the Swedish Armed Forces held between 1981–1982 using updated prototypes proved the utility and efficiency of the design, impressing both the Swedish military and Belgian army staff back at home. The FNC was finally adopted by the armed forces of Belgium in 1989, as a service-wide replacement for the 7.62mm-caliber FN FAL after having issued the FNC in small numbers to airborne infantry for several years.
The Indonesian Air Force purchased approximately 10,000 rifles in 1982, and would later acquire a license to manufacture the rifle for all branches of her armed forces. These guns are built by the Indonesian firm PT Pindad as the SS1-V1 and SS1-V2. The FNC is also the standard service rifle of Sweden (Ak 5) and is used in relatively small numbers by a number of other armies and police organizations.
Read more about this topic: FN FNC
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“The man, or the boy, in his development is psychologically deterred from incorporating serving characteristics by an easily observable fact: there are already people around who are clearly meant to serve and they are girls and women. To perform the activities these people are doing is to risk being, and being thought of, and thinking of oneself, as a woman. This has been made a terrifying prospect and has been made to constitute a major threat to masculine identity.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)
“America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“The young women, what can they not learn, what can they not achieve, with Columbia University annex thrown open to them? In this great outlook for women’s broader intellectual development I see the great sunburst of the future.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)