Armalite
Armalite AR-9 synonyms, Armalite AR-9 pronunciation, Armalite AR-9 translation, English dictionary definition of Armalite AR-9. N trademark a lightweight high-velocity rifle of various calibres, capable of automatic and semiautomatic operation.
Number of employees51–200 (est.)WebsiteArmaLite, or Armalite, is an American engineering company founded in the mid 1950s in. It ceased business in the 1980s.
The company was revived in 1996 by Mark Westrom.The idea of entering the small arms industry caught the interest of then-company president Richard Boutelle at, and Armalite was incorporated as a division of Fairchild on October 1, 1954. Their first design, the AR1 Parasniper from 1952, used foam-filled furniture and a composite barrel using a steel liner inside an aluminum sleeve. This was little used, but when they were asked to compete in a contest for an aircrew survival rifle their and designs from 1956 saw production use. This was followed by an invitation to compete for the new combat rifle for US forces, which led to the. The AR-10 lost the 1957 contest, but many of its ideas were reused in the smaller and lighter.Tired of repeated failures in the market, Fairchild licensed the AR-10 and AR-15 designs to, and the AR-10 to a Dutch company. Fairchild sold its interest in Armalite in 1962. That year, Colt sold the AR-15 to the to arm base security troops.
Commercial models were then sent to Special Forces in, who reported success using the weapon. This led to its being adopted as the Army's main combat rifle starting in 1964. Officially designated, it remained the US's primary combat rifle in one form or another to this day (October 2016), however it is in the process of being phased out by other weapon systems, notably the and is expected to be out of service by the mid 2030s.
It has been adopted by many countries in the 1980s.Armalite had further brushes with success, especially with the. These were not enough to keep the company going, and they ceased operations in the early 1980s. The design rights and name were purchased in 1996 by Mark Westrom, who re-launched the company Armalite, Inc., now headquartered in.In 2013, Westrom sold Armalite, Inc. To Strategic Armory Corps, who also owns AWC Silencers, Surgeon Rifles, Nexus Ammo, and McMillan Firearms. Strategic Armory Corps was formed with the goal of acquiring and combining market-leading companies within the firearms industry. In 2014, 3-Gun Champion Tommy Thacker was appointed president. In 2015, Armalite introduced 18 new products including AR-10 and M-15 platform firearms.
In mid 2018, Armalite was relocated to Phoenix Arizona. Contents.History Armalite began as a small arms engineering concern founded by George Sullivan, the patent counsel for, and funded. After leasing a small machine shop at 6567 Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, California, Sullivan hired several employees and began work on a prototype for a lightweight survival rifle for use by downed aircrew. 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. Armalite was instead focused on producing small arms concepts and designs to be sold or licensed to other manufacturers.
While testing the prototype of Armalite's survival rifle design at a local shooting range, Sullivan met, a talented small arms inventor, whom Sullivan immediately hired to be Armalite's chief design engineer. Stoner was a in and an expert with small arms. Since the early 1950s, he had been working at a variety of jobs while building gun prototypes in his spare time.
At the time, Armalite Inc. Was a very small organization (as late as 1956 it had only nine employees, including Stoner).With Stoner as chief design engineer, Armalite quickly released a number of interesting rifle concepts. The first Armalite concept to be adopted for production was the, a survival rifle chambered for the cartridge. The AR-5 was adopted by the as the.A civilian survival weapon, the AR-7, was later introduced, chambered in.
The semi-automatic AR-7, like the AR-5, could be disassembled, and the components stored in the buttstock. Primarily made of alloys, the AR-7 would float, whether assembled or stored, due to the design of the buttstock, which was filled with plastic foam.
The AR-7 and derivative models have been produced by several companies since introduction in the late 1950s, currently by, of Bayonne, New Jersey, and the rifle is still popular today. Most of Armalite's time and engineering effort in 1955 and 1956 was spent in developing the prototypes for what would become the. Based on Stoner's fourth prototype, two hand-built production AR-10s were tested by the in late 1956 and again in 1957 as a possible replacement to the venerable yet outdated. The untested AR-10 faced competition from the two other major rifle designs, the, an updated M1 Garand design that became the, and the T-48, a version of the famous rifle. Both the T-44 and the T-48 had a lead of several years over the AR-10 in development and trials testing; the T-44 had the additional advantage of being an in-house Springfield Armory design. The Army eventually selected the T-44 over both the AR-10 and the T-48.Armalite continued to market the AR-10 based on a limited production of rifles at their Hollywood facility.
These limited-production, virtually hand-built rifles are referred to today as the 'Hollywood' model AR-10. In 1957, Fairchild/Armalite sold a five-year manufacturing license for the AR-10 to the arms manufacturer 'Artillerie Inrichtingen (AI). Converting the AR-10 engineering drawings to metric, AI found the Hollywood version of the AR-10 deficient in a number of respects, and made a number of significant design and engineering changes in the AR-10 that continued throughout the production run in the Netherlands. Firearms historians have separated AR-10 production under the AI license into three identifiable versions of the AR-10: the 'Sudanese' model, the 'Transitional', and the 'Portuguese' model AR-10.
The Sudanese version derives its name from its sale to the Government of Sudan, which purchased approximately 2,500 AR-10 rifles, while the Transitional model incorporated additional design changes based on experience with the Sudanese model in the field. The final AI-produced AR-10, the Portuguese, was a product-improved variant sold to the Portuguese Air Force for use by paratroopers. While AR-10 production at AI dwarfed that of Armalite's Hollywood shop, it was still limited, as sales to foreign armies proved elusive., and all purchased AR-10 rifles for limited issue to their military forces, resulting in a total production of less than 10,000 AR-10 rifles in four years. It appears that none of the design changes and product improvements made by AI were ever transmitted to or adopted by Armalite.Disappointed with AR-10 sales, Fairchild Armalite decided to terminate its association with Artillerie Inrichtingen and instead concentrated on producing a small-caliber version of the AR-10 to meet a requirement for the U.S. Using the Hollywood-produced AR-10, the prototype was downsized in dimensions to accept the.223 Remington (5.56 mm) cartridge. This resulted in the, designed by Eugene Stoner, and, and chambered in 5.56 mm caliber. Armalite also re-introduced the AR-10, this time using a design derived from the original Hollywood prototypes of 1956, and designated the AR-10A.
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Unable to produce either rifle in quantity, Armalite was forced to license both designs to in early 1959. That same year, Armalite moved its corporate offices and engineering and production shop to new premises at 118 East 16th Street in Costa Mesa, California.Frustrated by what it perceived as unnecessary production delays at AI, and poor AR-10 sales, Fairchild decided not to renew Artillerie Inrichtingen's license to produce the AR-10. In 1962, disappointed with Armalite's meagre profits, largely derived from licensing fees, Fairchild dissolved its association with Armalite.With the AR-10 and AR-15 designs sold to Colt, Armalite was left without a viable major infantry arm to market to potential manufacturers and end users. Armalite next developed a series of less expensive new rifle designs in 7.62 mm and 5.56 mm.
The 7.62 mm NATO rifle was designated the. The AR-16 and the other newly designed Armalites utilized a more traditional gas piston design along with stamped and welded steel construction in place of aluminum forgings. Due to the success of the FN FAL, H&K G3, and the US M14, the 7.62 mm AR-16 (not to be confused with the ) was produced only in prototype quantities. Another Armalite project was the AR-17, a two-shot autoloading shotgun based on the short-recoil principle and featuring a weight of only 5.5 pounds thanks to its aluminum and plastic construction; only about 1,200 were ever produced.In 1963, development began on the rifle, a 'downsized' 5.56 mm AR-16 with a new gas system utilizing a short stroke gas piston instead of the Stoner direct gas impingement system used on the AR-10 and AR-15. Designed by Art Miller, the AR-18 was accompanied by a semi-automatic version, the AR-180.
However, the sales success of the AR-15 worldwide to the U.S. Military and other nations proved the undoing of the AR-18, and the latter failed to garner substantial orders. In response to criticism of the rifle's performance in trials by the military in the United States and Great Britain, a few minor improvements were made to the original design, but little else was done. Armalite manufactured some AR-18 and AR-180 rifles at its Costa Mesa facility and later licensed production to Howa Machinery Co. However, Japan was prohibited under its laws from selling military-style arms to combative nations, and with the United States involved in the Vietnam war, production at the Howa plant was limited. Armalite then licensed production to Sterling Armaments in Dagenham, Great Britain. Sales remained modest.
Today, the AR-180 is best known for its use by the in Ireland, who received small quantities of the rifle from black market sources. The AR-18 gas system and rotating bolt mechanism did serve as the basis for the current British small arms family, the, which came from the which is essentially an AR-18 in configuration. Other designs, such as the Singapore and German, are based upon the AR-18. A derivative of the AR-18 was the series. It came in four variants: the closed-bolt AR-101 assault rifle and AR-102 carbine, and the open-bolt fired AR-103 carbine and AR-104 light machine gun with ejecting magazines.
The weapon was intended to increase firepower of a squad as well as mobility. It was never adopted; however, it led to the.By the 1970s, Armalite had essentially stopped all new rifle development, and the company effectively ceased operations. In 1983 Armalite was sold to Elisco Tool Manufacturing Company, of the Philippines. The AR-18 tooling at the Costa Mesa shop went to the Philippines, while some of the remaining Armalite employees acquired the remaining inventory of parts for the AR-17 and AR-18.
Resurrection of the Armalite brand. Armalite AR-10BAfter passing through a series of owners, the Armalite brand name and rampant lion logo was sold in 1996 to Mark Westrom, a former U.S.
Army Ordnance officer and inventor of a 7.62 NATO sniper rifle based on the design concepts of Eugene Stoner. The company resumed business as Armalite Inc.
Today, Armalite produces a number of AR-15 and AR-10-based rifles, as well as rifles (the ), and a modified AR-180 named the AR-180B (discontinued in 2009). In the mid-2000s, Armalite had also announced that they are introducing a handgun line including the and AR-26 (both pistols also discontinued).In 2013, Westrom sold Armalite, Inc. To, who also owns,. Strategic Armory Corps was formed with the goal of acquiring and combining market-leading companies within the firearms industry.
Retrieved October 15, 2016. ^ Pikula, Sam (Major), The Armalite AR-10, p. Strategic Armory Corps.
SAC Firearms. Retrieved November 10, 2015. ^ Pikula, Sam (Major), The Armalite AR-10, pp.
23–26. Pikula, p. 25: The workshop on Santa Monica occupied only 1000 square feet, and was referred to as 'George's backyard garage' by employees. Pikula, Sam (Major), The Armalite AR-10, pp. 30-36. Pikula, Sam (Major), The Armalite AR-10, pp. 39-40.
Pikula, Sam (Major), The Armalite AR-10, pp. 29, 31. ^ Pikula, Sam (Major), The Armalite AR-10, p. 78. Pikula, Sam (Major), The Armalite AR-10, p.
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45. Pikula, Sam (Major), The Armalite AR-10, p.
72,73. Pikula, Sam (Major), The Armalite AR-10, p. 75. ^ Pikula, Sam (Major), The Armalite AR-10, p. 88.
^ Pikula, Sam (Major), The Armalite AR-10, p. 90. Hahn, Nick, The 'Other' Autoloaders, Gun Digest 2011, 65th ed., F+W Media (2010), p. 69.
Hobart, F. Small Arms Profile 22: Armalite Weapons. Profile Publications.
Pp. 182–189. Evans, Joseph Putnam (2016). Collector Grade Publications. P. 39. Evans, Joseph Putnam (2016).
Collector Grade Publications. P. 39., Stoner, Eugene, 'Gas operated bolt and carrier system', issued 1960-09-06, assigned to Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corp.
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(December 10, 2004). American Rifleman. National Rifle Association of America. Retrieved October 20, 2006.
Pikula, Sam (Major), The ArmaLite AR-10, Regnum Fund Press (1998),. Walter, John (2006). Rifles of the World. Krause Publications. Pp. 34–37.External links.