Ever since photography was invented in the early 1800s, it has been a medium of limitless possibilities. Today most people have at least a smartphone to capture what’s going on around, and the professionals use even more advanced cameras and optics. At TFB we’ve [Read More…]
The FAMAS – or “Fusil d’Assaut de la Manufacture d’Armes de Saint-Étienne” will remain in service for at least the next decade, but it is going to be phased out by the Heckler & Koch HK416F eventually. In our Photo Of The Day, we get another good [Read More…]
Our Photo Of The Day brings some French cuisine to the table. I understand why the manufacturer abbreviated “Fusil d’Assaut de la Manufacture d’Armes de Saint-Étienne” the way they did. FAMAS is a lot easier to pronounce and remember. [Read More…]
Bonjour et bienvenue, or welcome to our place! This is the Photo Of The Day by The Firearm Blog, a daily article series running since 2014. To our knowledge, this is the most well-known place on the Internet for photos of firearms. Today we have various photos of the [Read More…]
Photo Of The Day: Today we have a few pictures of the old French FAMAS and their new Heckler & Koch HK416F. The FAMAS above seems to have the controls of the FÉLIN system (Fantassin à Équipement et Liaisons Intégrés or Integrated Infantryman Equipment and [Read More…]
Today we’re looking at some monkey business with the French FAMAS rifle deep down in the Amazon rainforest. This picture is from 2020, but the FAMAS is soon history, for good and bad. The FAMAS replacement, which is the Heckler & Koch HK416, is still being [Read More…]
The École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr (“Special Military School of Saint-Cyr”) is the foremost French military academy. In our Photo Of The Day, we’ll follow some of the soldiers in this military school and their FAMAS bullpup rifles. As [Read More…]
Recently, a Redditor named Jordan bought a Keltec RDB bullpup rifle, which is chambered in 5.56 NATO. After the RDB’s 2 month birthday, Jordan found some FAMAS airsoft parts for sale and wondered if they could be mated to his RDB. One of his goals was to not [Read More…]
You all know the story about the French Army switching the FAMAS to the Heckler & Koch 416F by now. The first HKs have recently been delivered, and the changing process will continue for several years. It takes time to produce almost 100 000 rifles, and the Heckler [Read More…]
As previously reported, the French Army’s new service rifle will be the Heckler & Koch HK416F. The HK416F replaces the rather old FAMAS, and you can sense the depression in the air as this happens, they are letting go of an old friend. 5 000 units are supposed [Read More…]
Even though the French government has adopted the Heckler & Koch HK416F assault rifle to replace the aging FAMAS, it seems “Le Clairon” will remain in service for at least the next decade. The reason for this is the recent re-establishment of the French [Read More…]
The French next generation rifle competition is coming to an end, the two finalists, one from Belgium and the other from Germany, and the incumbent is set for replacement over the next few years. Before either the SCAR or the HK416 are inducted as the new arm of France, [Read More…]
France, one the world’s first adopters of the bullpup rifle, will officially be abandoning the stockless rifle concept for good, it seems. The competition to replace the venerable FAMAS bullpup rifle has moved forward, and the only competing bullpup design, HS [Read More…]
French military blogs are reporting that General Paul Tellié, the lead engineer of the FAMAS assault rifle, has passed away. The General began working on what would become the FAMAS in the late 1960s. It would take more than a decade before the French military [Read More…]
It may have been a long time coming, but finally last week the French Ministère de la Défense has officially launched a program to replace the FAMAS rifle. A few days ago a tender notice (N ° 14-70321) was published on BOAMP.fr (the official government [Read More…]
[ This guest post was written by Julien, a French TFB reader and gun enthusiast, in order to give us insight into the French Army rifle upgrade program. ] First of all, forgive my quite miserable english, I’ll try to explain with my own words. I am a French [Read More…]
A trusted source has revealed to me that the French Army has adopted the Heckler & Koch HK416 to replace the FAMAS. I will endeavour to find out which model has been adopted. I fully believe my source, but you should treat this as rumour until it has been [Read More…]
There is nothing quite like a military coup to bring dusty rifles from the depths of secret armories and into the light of day. The attempted coup in support of one of the pretenders to the Prime Ministership of Papua New Guinea ended just days after is began. The [Read More…]
I knew before I wrote the list of potential contenders for the next French rifle I would take a lot of flak for it (some of it more than justified), but I do appreciate the comments and discussion. My response to many of your questions is below … @Tinkerer and [Read More…]
I first reported rumors that the French would be replacing the FAMAS rifle back in 2009. During a recent meeting with the Commission of Defense, the French CEMAT (Chef d’Etat Major de l’Armée de Terre / Chief of Staff of the Army), General Ract Madoux, [Read More…]
Rumors that the French military are considering dropping the FAMAS rifle have been spreading fast across the internet. The speculation arose from a post [English translation] at The Mammoth, a French milblog. I asked Aurelien, an authority on the French military, what [Read More…]
Famous Guns has nice write up a about the french assault rifle, the FAMAS (Fusil Automatique, Manufacture d’Armes de St. Etienne), and it’s history. Development of this rifle began in 1967, under the leadership of the Paul Tellie, a French arms designer. [Read More…]
In this very exciting episode of TFBTV, James Reeves is pleased to announce the Springfield Hellion bullpup rifle, aka the HS Produkt VHS-2 (specifically, the VHS-K2). Springfield is going to be importing this rifle which has been in production in Croatia since 2008. It serves as the national rifle [Read More…]
The service history of the French FR-F2 begins in 1986. It’s a bolt-action rifle in 7.62x51mm NATO and it’s about to be replaced by something new. Like a lot of European countries, France has been shopping around quite actively in recent years, with [Read More…]
If there was a French version of the movie Apocalypse Now (1979), perhaps this would be one of the scenes. I guess the action of the FAMAS wouldn’t rock any kind of canoe, but I wonder how much the recoil of that machine gun would make the boat go in the opposite [Read More…]
I recently had the pleasure of meeting and shooting with Dan Brokos. Dan Brokos is the owner and primary instructor of Lead Faucet Tactical. Lead Faucet Tactical is a veteran-owned company that specializes in pistol classes, carbine classes, CQB classes, and urban [Read More…]
Photo Of The Day – Established in 2014 this is TFB’s way to show various photographs on a daily basis. As a bonus you get a short story and hopefully, you’ll learn something new. Today we visit New Caledonia. The machine-translated caption from RIMaP-NC [Read More…]
Well hello there fellow night vision enthusiast and welcome to Friday Night Lights. FNL is brought to you by ATN Corp, manufacturers of night vision and thermal optics like the THOR LT. As with all of our sponsored series, Friday Night Lights will continue to bring you [Read More…]
Photo Of The Day, with ceremonial pictures from the French 35e régiment d’Infanterie as the unit changes command. Pictures of French soldiers with the old FAMAS rifles are getting rare as it’s being replaced by the Heckler & Koch HK416F, which was [Read More…]
TFB’s Photo Of The Day has taken us to almost every place on Earth. As far as I know, these are the first images TFB ever published from New Caledonia. We’re looking at Pacific Volunteers, the French land task force in the South Pacific. They have some 700 [Read More…]