FARA 83
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The FARA 83 (; "Argentine Republic Automatic Rifle") or FAA 81, "Argentine Automatic Rifle" () was a rifle locally designed and developed for the
Argentine Army The Argentine Army () is the Army, land force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of Argentina. Under the Argentine Constitution, the president of Argentina is the commander-in-chief of the Armed For ...
in the 1980s. It is one of the first indigenously designed assault rifles in South America.


Development

The FAA project started in the early 1980s, when the government was still controlled by the
National Reorganization Process The National Reorganization Process ( PRN; often simply , "the Process") was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as the ("last military junta"), ("last military dictatorship") ...
. The DGFM (General Government Directorate for Military Procurements, or ''Dirección General de Fabricaciones Militares'') ordered a replacement be designed for the FMAP FAL, a
FN FAL The FAL (, English: Light Automatic Rifle) is a battle rifle designed in Belgium by Dieudonné Saive and manufactured by FN Herstal and others since 1953. During the Cold War the FAL was adopted by many countries of the NATO, North Atlantic Trea ...
license-built in Argentina. The
prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...
was completed in 1981, but production didn't start until 1984, and continued until 1990. By the late 1980s, under
Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) served as the 50th president of Argentina for ten years, from 1989 to 1999. He identified as Peronism, Peronist, serving as President of the Justicialist Party for 13 years (from 1990 to 200 ...
's tenure as president, the country was undergoing economic difficulties. The economic crisis severely limited the production of modern weapons. This factor forced President Menem to cancel several projects, including the Condor I and Condor II, the FARA 83, and SAIA 90. He was also forced to close armament factories, including TAMSE (''Tanque Argentino Mediano Sociedad del Estado''), which was responsible for the TAM tanks and '' Domecq Garcia Shipyard'' (the only submarine-related shipyard). Production of the rifle ground to a halt after 1193 rifles had been completed, however, it was resumed in 1990; it is unknown how many rifles were made, but for the most part the Argentine Armed Forces are still armed with the FAL rifle, while the FARA 83 is a secondary weapon.


Main characteristics

The FARA-83 was mostly inspired by the Beretta AR70 (Model of 1982). Features include a folding buttstock and
tritium Tritium () or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of ~12.33 years. The tritium nucleus (t, sometimes called a ''triton'') contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of the ...
sights for aiming in low light conditions; the rifle uses a proprietary 30-round
Beretta AR70 The Beretta AR70/90 is a gas operated assault rifle chambered for the 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge, and is the standard issue service rifle of the Italian Armed Forces. The weapon is also designed to be fitted with a rifle grenade, and has gre ...
magazine (early issue), and has a trigger group that enables semi-automatic and fully automatic fire.


In popular culture

The FARA 83 is featured in the first-person shooter video game '' Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War'' as part of the Season 2 battle pass which is claimed at tier 15.


References

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External links


FARA 83
5.56×45mm NATO assault rifles Assault rifles of Argentina Fabricaciones Militares Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1984