Peruvian FAD

Searching Triton's ACR links led me to this: a futuristic Peruvian assault rifle with fairly standard features... The FAD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAD_assault_rifle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vQeMAP4sx0

From wiki:
The Dual Automatic Rifle (FAD - Fusil Automático Doble) designed by Salomón Braga Lozo of SIMA (Navy Industrial Service) is a proposal centered around the cartridge NATO 5.56x45mm that offers less recoil, less weight and volume while at the same time giving precision, adequate range and ergonomy that is to be coupled with a "pump-action" type 40mm Grenade Launcher in a single package. It is of the "Bullpup" configuration; being a compact weapon can be easily used by armor crews, as a back-up weapon.

Rather a strange looking weapon. I do not profess to have a great deal of knowledge of firearms, the only time I've ever held a weapon was at army tatoo's. The handgrip and trigger appear really odd and not very comfortable to hold, and what's the idea with placing the magazine at an angle, surely this would make left handed use more difficult?

Most bullpups are awkward for southpaws. In that regard though, FAD's magazine is the least of its problems -- spent cartridges are expelled at a 45° angle anyway.

The prototype shown is slightly different from the FAD presented at the Salón Internacional de Tecnología en Defensa (Sitdef) 2007 in Lima.

I see no advantage to angling the magazine in that way. I'd have liked to see it demonstrated on the video being used properly, with a magazine change with the weapon hard into the shoulder. Only amateurs who have watched too many video games remove their weapon from the shoulder to change magazines.

Not a very tactical way to change a mag, I agree. Some sources ( FR magazine RAIDS on the FN2000) state that it is inevitable with a bulpup design.

Firefly 2 said:

Not a very tactical way to change a mag, I agree. Some sources ( FR magazine RAIDS on the FN2000) state that it is inevitable with a bulpup design.

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Then who ever wrote that has never been trained properly to use a bullpup. No modern military longarm should need to be removed from the shoulder to be reloaded or to have its action worked. This is one of the major flaws with the M16 series of rifles. Doing so, removes the sight-picture and that means extra seconds wasted while the firer re-acquires their sight-picture to aim the weapon.

Its like all the amateurs I see on youtube using bolt-action rifles. They invariably remove it from the shoulder, to work the action and then "palm" the bolt handle. Any military instructor who saw that would be down on them like a ton of bricks. The same goes for a bullpup weapon. All it shows is poor training/ignorance on the part of the user.

RAIDS rates only slightly higher than SOF IMHO, if that is what they are claiming.

May be a lapsus on their part, I think their other articles are quite good.

Heya, y'all!

Watching the video, it became obvious why the magazine is canted to the side like that... to clear the pistol grip. Watch when the two PMs are looking at it, they're probably thinking the same thing. If the magazine hung straight down, the wrist of the firing hand would be pressing against the forward edge of the magazine, not very ergodynamic!

Russ
Proud son of Rose and Wes

Part of the reason for installing the magazine at an angle from vertical is to allow ejection - of spent cartridges - downwards.
The pistol grip mimics that on the Fabrique Nationale P90 Personal Defence Weapon.
While originally designed for second-line technicians (drivers, signalers, artillerymen, etc.) the FAD was adopted by special forces door-kickers because its short overall length is better for house-clearing.

riggerrob said:

...The pistol grip mimics that on the Fabrique Nationale P2000 Personal Defence Weapon...

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And it was FN's F2000 bullpup rifle - not the FAD - which ended up arming Peruvian Naval Infantry and SOF. Presumably that means that the tweaked FAD-V2 variant is dead?

Attached is an image showing a quite different style of pistol grip. Was this a prototype?

JohnR said:

Rather a strange looking weapon. I do not profess to have a great deal of knowledge of firearms, the only time I've ever held a weapon was at army tatoo's. The handgrip and trigger appear really odd and not very comfortable to hold, and what's the idea with placing the magazine at an angle, surely this would make left handed use more difficult?

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When fired left-handed the FAD’s magazine would protrude a bit to the left, barely noticeable except in tightly confined buildings. It is tilted to allow spent cartridges to eject down-wards.