FAMAS F1, 5.56×45mm NATO (France, 1979-1992)
The Fusil d'Assaut de la Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne was the standard rifle of the French army from its introduction until 2017. It was the first bullpup configuration rifle to be issued en masse by a national military. Use of a lever-delayed blowback action allowed the barrel to be free-floated and simplified the use of rifle grenades.
The combined safety and fire-selector switch is located inside the trigger guard, which can be rotated to allow access while wearing gloves. From 1981, a second control is added behind the magazine which allows the user to limit automatic fire to three-round bursts (RoF 9, two Ready manoeuvrers to switch).
The large carrying handle protects the day and improved-visibility (negate −1 in darkness penalties) sights and encloses the charging handle and flip-out grenade sight. It also serves as the mount for the integral bipod. All controls are ambidextrous, but as the ejection port is located in the stock it is necessary to swap some parts into a different configuration in order to shoot the weapon from the left shoulder. This is however a simple task which requires no special tools.
Standard accessories are a 0.6 lbs. patrol sling (GURPS High-Tech, p. 154), 1 lb. knife bayonet (Reach 1), gun-cleaning kit (GURPS High-Tech, p. 160), a handful of spare parts, and a bottle of oil (stored inside the pistol grip). Issued magazines were often cheap quality (GURPS Tactical Shooting, p. 74). Although it has no accessory rails (GURPS High-Tech, p. 161), there are after-market modifications such as the Poignee Garde-Main Polyvalante (“Multipurpose Handguard”) which allow them to be fitted. The French army issued these along with 0.8 lbs. Scrome J4F1 4× battery-illuminated scopes (+2 Acc and removes −1 in darkness penalties) to fire-team leaders.
The F1 can only use its own proprietary magazines and functions poorly with heavier bullets than those the French army issues. These issues were addressed by the FAMAS G2 (1994-2000), which increased the twist rate of the rifling and replaced the magazine well with one which could take the same magazines used by most NATO forces. Apart from the magazine well, it is easily distinguished by the enlarged trigger guard which encloses the entire hand. Wt. 9.7/1, Shots 30+1(3). The G2 was adopted only by the French marines.
Export versions of the F1 were available with G2-style barrels. A rare ‘commando’ version with a 15.7″ barrel, incompatible with rifle grenades, was sold to Brazil and Cyprus. Dmg 5d−1 pi, Wt. 8.1/1, ST 8†.
The rare civilian versions of the F1 had the recoil buffer, improved-visibility sights, and grenade-launching elements removed, and were restricted to semi-automatic only. The MAS 223 (1986-1989) is otherwise very similar to the original. RoF 3, LC 3. The MAS 222 (1986-1993) was chambered in .222 Remington, had a 20.9″ barrel, and a smaller magazine to comply with French laws. Dmg 5d−1 pi, Wt. 8.7/0.4, RoF 3, Shots 9+1(3), Bulk −5, LC 3.
In 2010, the French army first fielded its Fantassin à Équipement et Liaisons Intégrés (“Integrated Infantryman Equipment and Communications”) system, which included a modified version of the F1. This replaced the carry handle with an accessory rail (requiring the charging handle and sights to be modified, and removing the improved-visibility sights), moved and changed the shape of the bipod, put another accessory rail at the front of the weapon, changed the bayonet mount to an American-style one, and added a vertical fore-grip (GURPS Tactical Shooting, p. 75) which includes a control panel for the system’s sight. This sight, the Sagem SWORD, combined a 4× optical sight (+2 Acc), thermal imager (Infravision), and laser rangefinder (+3 Acc) into one chunky (1.2 lbs. adds −1 Bulk) package. A version without the fore-grip was named the FAMAS Valorisé (“Improved”).
GUNS (RIFLE) (DX−4 or most other Guns at −2)
| TL | Weapon | Damage | Acc | Range | Weight | RoF | Shots | ST | Bulk | Rcl | Cost | LC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | FAMAS F1, 5.56×45mm | 5d pi | 5 | 420/3,000 | 9.3/1 | 16 | 25+1(3) | 9B† | −4 | 2 | $2,000/$20 | 2 |
Rifle Grenades
Luchaire AC 58 F1, 58mm (France, 1979-)
The Grenade à fusil antichar de 58 mm Mle F1 PAB is a bullet-trap rifle-grenade, suitable for launching from any 5.56×45mm rifle with a standard NATO 22mm flash-hider. It is fin-stabilised and has an impact-fused HEAT warhead. The FAMAS grenade sights are designed for its trajectory (Acc 0 if launched from any other rifle).
APAV 40 F2, 40mm (France, 1979-)
The anti-personnel/anti-véhicule grenade uses a similar design to the AC 58, but with a HEDP warhead. The older F1 version (1960-1978) required the use of a blank cartridge to propel it.
GUNS (GRENADE LAUNCHER) (DX−4 or most other Guns at −4)
| TL | Weapon | Damage | Acc | Range | Weight | RoF | Shots | Bulk | Cost | LC | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Luchaire AC 58 | 4d×5(10) cr ex | 1 | 350 | 1.1 | 1 | 1(5) | −1 | $40 | 1 | [1] |
| linked | 8d cr ex | ||||||||||
| 7 | APAV 40 | 8d(10) cr ex | 1 | 400 | 0.9 | 1 | 1(5) | −1 | $30 | 1 | [1] |
| linked | 6d [2d] cr ex |
[1] Add grenade's bulk to rifle's Bulk.
