Infantry Rifles
Infantry assault rifles, military firearm that is chambered for ammunition of reduced size or propellant charge and that has the capacity to switch between semiautomatic and fully automatic fire. Because they are light and portable yet still able to deliver a high volume of fire with reasonable accuracy at modern combat ranges of 1,000–1,600 feet (300–500 metres), assault rifles have replaced the high-powered bolt-action and semiautomatic rifles of the World War II era as the standard infantry weapon of modern armies.
In modern militaries, this is generally a versatile, rugged, and reliable assault rifle or battle rifle, suitable for use in nearly all environments and is effective in most combat situations. Almost all modern militaries are issued service pistols as sidearms to accompany their service rifles. The term can also be used to describe weapons issued by non-military forces, such as law enforcement or paramilitaries. If the issued weapon is not a rifle or carbine, but instead a different type of firearm intended to serve in a specialized role such as a combat shotgun, submachine gun, or light machine gun, it is called a service firearm or service weapon.
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves ("rifling") cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile (for small arms usage, called a bullet), imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the orientation of the weapon. There are various types of rifles, most notably the automatic rifle, the bolt-action rifle, the lever-action rifle and the semi-automatic rifle.
Infantry assault rifle, military firearm that is chambered for ammunition of reduced size or propellant charge and that has the capacity to switch between semiautomatic and fully automatic fire. Because they are light and portable yet still able to deliver a high volume of fire with reasonable accuracy at modern combat ranges of 1,000–1,600 feet (300–500 metres), assault rifles have replaced the high-powered bolt-action and semiautomatic rifles of the World War II era as the standard infantry weapon of modern armies.
Some NATO armies adopted more satisfactory 7.62-mm rifles, although even these were employed as advanced self-loaders rather than automatics. Most commonly, they were either the gas-operated Fusil Automatique Léger (FAL), introduced by the Belgian Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre in 1957, or the blowback-operated Gewehr 3 (G3), produced in West Germany by the firm Heckler & Koch, beginning in 1959. Millions of these weapons were sold to many countries.
After U.S. troops in Europe were issued the M16, a series of trials ensued that ended with the decision, in 1980, to adopt a standard 5.56-mm NATO cartridge. This fired a brass-jacketed projectile that, having a heavier lead core and steel nose, was lethal at longer ranges than the original AR-15 bullet. The M16A2 was rifled to fire this round, and other NATO armies switched over. West Germany introduced the G41, a 5.56-mm version of the G3, and Belgium replaced the FAL with the FNC.
The MPT (Turkish: Millî Piyade Tüfeği, “National Infantry Rifle”) is a modular rifle family designed by MKEK and produced by MKEK, Sarsılmaz Arms and Kalekalıp to meet the demands of the Turkish Armed Forces and to replace its aging rifles such as the Heckler & Koch G3 and Heckler & Koch HK33 due to most of them being near the end of their service life.
The MPT was designed for robust high altitude, all weather combat, capable of functioning in extreme hot and cold weather. The MKEK MPT is a rifle intended to take abuse and extreme mistreatment and still maintain high accuracy and reliability in order to survive in true battle environments. It made its first public appearance at the Eurosatory 2014, ADEX 2014 and the MSPO 2014 events.
Serial production began in 2015. The initial phase of the project will see a total of 35,014 MPT-76s being produced in two tranches. The first tranche of the initial phase, consisting of 20,000 rifles was contracted to the state-owned company Machines and Chemical Industries Board (MKEK) in June 2015. The second tranche, consisting of 15,014 rifles, was contracted with local company Kalekalip in December 2015.
The first batch of rifles was ready for delivery to the Turkish military in January 2017. Approximately 25,000 MPT-76s have been built by December 2018 and there is 350,000+ firm order for the rifle in 2019.
Serial production of the MPT-76, which was developed entirely by Turkish engineers within the scope of the Modern Infantry Rifle project carried out under the coordination of the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) to meet the modern assault rifle needs of the Turkish Armed Forces, started in 2016. Today, more than 40 thousand rifles, produced and delivered by the Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKEK), Sarsılmaz, and Kale, are actively used by security forces.
While the deliveries are ongoing, development efforts continued in line with the feedback from the field. Initially, the MPT-76 weighed 4.2 kilograms; however, MKEK made further improvements on the rifle and reduced its weight by more than 400 grams. Thus, the new MPT-76-MH became approximately 3 kilograms and 750 grams. Following the completion of its qualification process, the lighter National Infantry Rifle MPT-76-MH is expected to be used by security forces in the coming period.
The National Infantry Rifle (MPT-76), which was produced completely using national resources and without technical support from abroad, passed 42 different environmental tests such as cold and hot air, sand, rain, and mud, all prepared according to NATO standards. The rifle can operate at -40°C and 65°C under pressurized water and mud without malfunctioning. The MPT-76 uses 7.62x51 mm NATO bullets, has an effective range of up to 600 meters, a barrel life of up to 12 thousand shots, and has a firing rate of 650 shots per minute.
