List of assault rifles

Assault rifles are full-length, select fire rifles that are chambered for an intermediate-power rifle cartridge that use a detachable magazine. Assault rifles are currently the standard service rifles in most modern militaries. Some rifles listed below, such as the AR-15, also come in semi-automatic models that would not belong under the term "assault rifle".

Definition

By strict definition, a firearm must have the following characteristics to be considered an assault rifle:

It must be an individual weapon;
It must be capable of selective fire, which means it has the capacity to switch between semi-automatic and burst/fully automatic fire;
It must have an intermediate-power cartridge: more power than a pistol but less than a standard rifle or battle rifle. For full-power automatic rifles, see List of battle rifles;
Its ammunition must be supplied from a detachable box magazine;
It should have an effective range of at least .

Rifles that meet most of these criteria, but not all, are technically not assault rifles, despite frequently being called such.

For example:

Select-fire Amogh carbines are not assault rifles; their effective range is only 200 yards.
Select-fire rifles such as the FN FAL are not assault rifles; they are battle rifles and fire full-powered rifle cartridges.
Select-fire rifles such as the Joint Venture Protective Carbine are not assault rifles; as their cartridge is too weak.
Fully-automatic-only rifles like the M231 Firing Port Weapon are not assault rifles; they do not have select-fire capabilities. In contrast, the original ArmaLite AR-15 would meet the criteria.
Select-fire rifles with fixed magazines like the Cei-Rigotti are not assault rifles; they do not have detachable box magazines.

Several of the rifles on the below list have non-assault rifle variants. Because they lack the selective fire capability as they only fire semi-automatic even though it fulfills the other requirements of the definition above.

List

References

List of assault rifles

Definition

List

See also

References