French Army to replace the Famas with...

[Moose242]

Really it isn't that different, you just put a spring in the BCG to unlock the bolt head, and you have a op rod to ram the bolt back instead of gas. Stoner intentionally did not use a piston system because of weight and part count.

Yes, both systems get the job done more or less the same, and of course a piston system does have a few more moving parts. While you, I, and a some others may know the differences down to the nearest detail, other may not. Anyways, here is an animated GIF that shows the different operating principles for a piston gun vs a DI gun-









The benefits of a piston are that they run cleaner, cooler, and are generally thought of as more reliable as evidenced in the army's own dust tests-







DI is however lighter and considered to be more accurate by internet warriors such as myself.

[ThreeFingerPete]

DI is however lighter and considered to be more accurate by internet warriors such as myself.

Isn't that DI m4 in the test the one that was severely under lubricated throughout the duration of the test? IIRC, they ran the tests again and found that stoppages were quite similar to the other guns.

[CJ]

Those animations are always a little deceptive. It makes people think it just shoots gas into the receiver blowing shit all over the place. The fact is the gas is pushed into the carrier key, into the BCG itself, which operates the bolt, once unlocked it vents the gases out the side of the BCG into the atmosphere and out of the gun. A lot of the time you'll see videos where they highlight the cloud of gasses near the ejection port proclaiming it as evidence. In fact that's exactly how it's designed to work, vent the gasses out the side of the BCG.

[KBScobravert]

Alex that is why I like the Adams Arms kit so much when BUILDING one. When you factor in the $279 for the kit and that it comes with a bolt carrier and gas block already it really doesn't add more than $200 to a build and even less if you use their handguards.

[32vfromhell]

I read this response, which makes sense considering you have to have a RFP in our system for aquisitions as well :

Steve, I am sorry, but I do not belive your “trusted source”. The whole story seems to be only a rumour. The French Armed Forces are not allowed to adopt any type of weapon system without a formal, open tender (due to the EU regulations and the internal French law system). It just not work like that.

So far, the French Direction générale de l’armement (General Directorate for Armament”, DGA) which is the French Government Defence procurement agency responsible for the program management, development and purchase of weapon systems for the French military has not put the assault rifle out to tender.

Without a formal tender (with whole set of requirements for a new rifle) there is no chance that French Armed Forces has adopted anything. The French Chief of Staff of the French Army (CEMAT), General Bertrand Ract Madoux has told last year that it is expected to start looking for 60,000 assault rifles in 2013 at the earliest.