New American Rifle

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28267, 3 May 1957, Page 9

New American Rifle

WASHINGTON, May 1. The United States Army announced today that it had adopted a new standard rifle which would replace four present types of shoulder-fired weapons. It would be issued to the troops in 1960. In announcing results of a sixyear competition, the Army disclosed that it had rejected the Belgian FN rifle used by Britain in favour of a weapon developed at the Springfield, Massachusetts, armoury. The new rifle was known as the T-44. It would replace the M-l Garand rifle, which had been used since early 1936, the .30 calibre carbine, the M-3 sub-machine gun, and the Browning automatic rifle. The T-44 was capable either of fully automatic or semi-automatic fire, the Army said. Its rate of fire was about 700 rounds a minute. It was .30 calibre, firing a United States-developed bullet which is standard for N.A.T.O, forces. The Army Secretary (Mr Wilber Brucker) said the United States and Belgian rifles had only ’marginal” performance differences. He said the T-44 was preferred because it was lib lighter and was “considered better suited” for mass production and training. The T-44 weighs 8.71 b. The new rifle, coupled with the previously-adopted M-60 general purpose machine-gun, would reduce the Army’s small arms from seven to two and types of ammunition from three to one.