Bullpup is a firearm configuration in which the action (or mechanism) and magazine are located behind the trigger. This increases the barrel length relative to the overall weapon length, permitting shorter weapons for the same barrel length, saving weight and increasing maneuverability. It alternatively allows for longer barrels on weapons of the same length, improving trajectory and effective range.
At the end of the cold war after the rejection of Heckler & Koch’s caseless round and the G11 rifle the German army (Bundeswehr) had really three options: to continue to use the G3 rifle, to start using the AK-74 (of which there were tens of thousands in the armories of the former East German state), or to have yet another competition for a new assault rifle. After much deliberation the choise was finally made: the G3 was becoming obsolete, the AK-74 was politically untenable (but it would have been the most economic choise). So a new design competition was held. The winner of this competition was a new rifle system from H&K, which was adopted as the G36 (Gewehr 36 = Rifle 36).
France’s newest assault rifle, the FAMAS (Fusil Automatique, Manufacture d’Armes de St. Etienne = Assault Rifle by St-Etienne Arms Factory), has already demonstrated itself to be an effective and generally well-conceived piece of ordnance. First introduced in 1972 and subsequently modified, the FAMAS was adopted by the French armed forces and placed into production in 1978. Soldiers refer to it as “le Clairon” (the bugle). But this bugle shoots. It is not a pretty weapon. Esthetics, however, are of small consequence in the design of efficient weaponry.
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