AR8R5 Carbine w/ stock ironsights.
-thanks to RRoan (Senestrum) for the incredible lineartification of my scrawled drawing.
Designer: Kiel Lebenatyr
Designed: 2008
Manufacturer : IFAM
Unit cost: 1600 NSD (including parts for all configurations)
Produced: 2009-present
Number built: ~20 million
Variants: Compact Carbine, Carbine (14, 15, 17 inch barrels), Rifle, Designated Marksman's Rifle, Automatic Rifle.
(statistics are for Carbine variant)
Weight: 3.4 kg unloaded, 3.6 kg loaded
Length: 811.5 mm (32 in), stock unfolded
Barrel length: 375 mm (15 in)
Cartridge: 6.7x47mm Arsenal Standard Anemonian
Action: Gas-operated (short-stroke gas piston), rotating bolt
Rate of fire: 780 rpm
Muzzle velocity: 830 m/s (2,723 ft/s)
Effective range: 500 m (1,640 ft)
Feed system: 30-round detachable box magazine
Sights: Dual-mode accessory diopter sight and front post, flip up, Picatinny rail for optics.
Background and Role
The IFAM AR8R5 is a modular weapons system chambered in the 6.7x47mm Arsenal Standard Anemonian intermediate rifle cartridge. With an orthodox ergonomic design based on the AR15 family of rifles and a highly simplistic, rail based design for simple adjustment to a variety of different roles, the exterior design of the AR8 follows a very ordinary design ethos. The internal workings of the weapon are based on the tried and tested layout of the Heckler and Koch HK416's short-stroke gas piston system and rotating bolt, alongside a cold hammer-forged barrel, to ensure reliability of the weapon in the various combat environments encountered by the Anemonian Armed Forces and to ensure that the weapon's parts would last for a long period of time before requiring replacement, increasing the cost-efficiency of the weapon. Though this means that the weapon's internal workings are slightly complex, this problem has been largely allayed by the quality of the Armed Forces' personnel pool.
Development
AR8
Design on the original AR8, chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO, was commenced in 2006 following the Anemonian Army's final consensus concerning the impractical, underperforming nature of the then utilised AR5 carbine. Though these sentiments were not made public for national security reasons, the Armed Forces Chiefs of Staff commissioned the Imperial Foundries of Anemos Major to look into the development of a successor weapon to the AR5. In 2006, IFAM returned with a potential experimental design for a successor weapon, labelled the AR5R/Y, and the Armed Forces, now interesting in purchasing a new weapon following their decision to adopt the 6.7x47mm round, requested a more radical weapon design to replace the AR5 entirely, requesting a modular family of weapons and compatibility for the new round as part of the official requirements for the replacement weapon. IFAM produced the final design in early 2008, and the new weapon, now labelled the AR8, was adopted as the formal successor to the AR5, 6 and 7 across the Armed Forces in the same month.
AR8A1~AR8R3
Faults with the initial weapon were, however, quickly found. Though the internal workings of the weapon operated with the efficiency expected of this tried and tested design, the modularity of the weapon was questioned when it was found that the conversion process took over an hour in the hands of a trained weapons officer. Furthermore, the initial ergonomics of the weapon followed the AR5's exterior design very closely, and the result was that the Armed Forces halted its order for one million rifles after the two-hundreth order had been delivered under the condition that IFAM investigate these complaints and amend the weapon accordingly. In order to comply with these decisions, IFAM developed two separate weapons; the AR8R1 was a conventional upgrade of the weapon, while the AR8R2 was a bullpup conversion of the original AR8, which facilitated weapons modularity by placing the weapon's working parts at the back of the rifle so as to ensure that the operator of the weapon simply had to repalce the forward barrel area of the weapon to adapt it to different roles. This design was taken up by Arsenal Deimos; however, IFAM selected the AR8R1 as the future for the AR8 family and, following a few minor modifications to this design, including a bayonet lug and folding iron-sights for the rifle, IFAM produced the AR8R3 rifle, which the Armed Forces happily selected.
AR8R4 onwards
In 2009, however, the Crown Army of Anemos Major was presented with an experimental design, the AR8R4, by IFAM. Due to the fact that the Crown Army had been engaged in constant counter-insurgency combat within Asakura for the best part of ten years, the new rifle could only be issued to units returning from the conflict gradually, and the result was that only 200,000 rifles had been issued by this point. IFAM took this opportunity to present a weapon to the Crown Army capable of far simpler field conversion to different roles, and a higher adaptability to various combat requirements through the implementation of a stock-replacement system and a greater amount of Rail Interface Systems on the weapon itself. Furthermore, the ergonomics of the weapon were modified further according to complaints raised about the redesigned AR8R3. The Army decided to replace their existing order with one for the new weapon, and after the finalisation of those parts required for the new weapon, the final design was labelled as the AR8 Revision 5 and implemented as the new standard combat rifle for the Anemonian Crown Army.
The modular design of the AR8R5 comes in several different configurations. Though there are a number of intermediate custom configurations utilised by some specialised groups, the standard configurations offered by IFAM and its subsidiaries are the Compact Carbine, Carbine, Rifle, Marskman's Rifle and Automatic Rifle. In these configurations, the AR8 family of weapons fulfils various roles, from standard infantry weapons to the Anemonian vehicles crewman's sidearm.