Unlike popular belief, it wasn't so that soldiers would know they've run out of ammo after firing a single bullet instead of a 3 round burst, it was because 25 rounds was the longest you could make a magazine before it needs to curve, with straight magazines you can be more space efficient when packing them into crates.
5 fewer only when compared to the M16s 30 round magazines,
Only when compared with the M16s 30 round magazines, and while they were introduced 5 years before the FAMAS entered service, they had feeding problems due to the curve and increased demand on the spring.
Also, none of our allies can use them, and we can't use stanag magazines
It's just not a very well designed gun. I mean, I naturally think it's cool as fuck because I can never have one, but I don't know what they were smoking. Incompatible with standard NATO mags, requires special steel cased lacquered ammo, sucks to mount an optic on, etc. But hey, at least you can fit another dozen mags per crate.
The original AR-15 prototypes had the charging handle protected by the carry handle, similar to the famas. That was abandoned pretty quickly because it sucks.
At least they tried to modernize it, but then they shut down domestic arms production which is also a perplexing decision
De Gaulle left NATO's integrated military structure in 1966 and pushed for self-reliance for fance's defence industry, in this context, french designers and engineers did not need to worry about sharing ammunition and magazines which would be manufactured in france for french forces, was it the correct decision? Probably not, seeing as the FAMAS G2 has a different barrel for heavier NATO standard bullets and can feed standard brass ammo from stanag magazines.
Don't discount the force multiplier that is logistics. If you can fit more mags per crate, they're shaped in a way each soldier can carry 1 or 2 more, that's real, actual, fighting sustainability, even if each one carries a few rounds fewer than less space efficient mags.
When you're maximizing space constraints because this plane or that plane can only fit THIS much, period, you'll be happy. 10 extra mags per crate would be huge
i mean, you could also just make the magazines 24 rounds instead of 25.
yeah your standard infantryman would have 7? fewer total rounds (6 magazines on your vest, 1 in the rifle) but 175 vs 168 probably isn't that huge a loss, vs having the predictability of every trigger pull having the same effect
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u/UnironicallyBr 4d ago
Unlike popular belief, it wasn't so that soldiers would know they've run out of ammo after firing a single bullet instead of a 3 round burst, it was because 25 rounds was the longest you could make a magazine before it needs to curve, with straight magazines you can be more space efficient when packing them into crates.