The FAMAS rifle, the iconic French bullpup rifle, will soon be replaced and the replacement will not be a French-made one nor will it be a bullpup rifle. For a country that takes great pride in its defense industry boasting of homegrown tanks, ships, and fighter planes, will now have to look to either the Belgians or the German to replace the FAMAS.

The FAMAS rifle has been in use in the French army since 1977, the first army in the world to adopt a bullpup rifle as the mainstay rifle. According to Sputnik News, FAMAS production stopped in the 1990s when it had fully met the requirements of the Army, with plants closed down since there were no regular orders and were expensive to maintain. Since then, there was no local alternative to replace the rifle.

The French decided not to invest in new machines to work on developing a new rifle for the French Army and instead looked for outside suppliers who are already capable of doing mass production of the rifle that will be picked as the replacement. In this case, the French procurement office, the DGA, issued a tender for a rifle that is chambered in 5.56 mm x 45 NATO ammunition, given then France is also a NATO member. The first tender will award an order of 100,000 units.

Five companies answered the call and offered their following:

• Heckler & Koch (Germany): HK416
• FN Herstal (Belgium): FN SCAR-L
• Beretta (Italy): ARX-160
• Swiss Arms (Switzerland): SG-550
• HS Produkt (Croation): VHS-2

Photo:FN Herstal FN SCAR-L

We are actually surprised that the HS Produckt VHS-2 was not selected to be one of two finalists given that it is a bullpup rifle and when it was first revealed, has an uncanny resemblance to the FAMAS. The selected finalists were the HK416 and the FN SCAR-L.

Photo: Heckler & Koch HK416

The finalists are actual good choices as they are now in wide use, mainly by a good number of special operations forces in the world. The Norwegian Army has the HK416 as their standard rifle whilst Belgium has the SCAR-L as the main assault rifle. Both are much sought after rifles as they have already proven themselves in combat and are highly reliable weapons.

As to whatever rifle the French Army will decide on, we shall now as the decision will be made over the course of the month.