FN CAL

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The CAL (Carabine Automatique Légère, or Light Automatic Carbine) is a Belgian assault rifle made by Fabrique Nationale (FN Herstal) in the 1960s. It was FN’s first 5.56 mm rifle and was meant to be a smaller, cheaper alternative to the FN FAL, though it was not a commercial success. Its development helped lead to the later FN FNC.

Key points
- Origin: Belgium; designer: Ernest Vervier; manufacturer: FN Herstal
- Years produced: 1966–1975; approximate total built: about 30,000
- Caliber: 5.56×45 mm NATO
- Type and action: gas-operated with a rotating bolt; uses a long-stroke gas piston
- Locking: bolt has interrupted lugs; early CALs used diagonally cut locking lugs
- Rifle features: resembles the FAL but with an original design; rotating bolt (unlike the FAL’s tilting bolt)
- Fire modes: semi-auto and full-auto; early models included a three-round burst option
- Magazine: 20-, 25-, or 30-round detachable box magazine
- Weight and size: about 3.35 kg (7.4 lb); length 980 mm; barrel 467 mm
- Sights: iron sights
- Cost-cutting approach: FN tried to reduce costs by using more castings and stampings instead of tight precision machining
- Market outcome: despite its innovations, the CAL was expensive and complex for its time and sold poorly; FN eventually replaced it with the cheaper FN FNC
- Notable design note: the CAL’s bolt rotates to unlock while the bolt face moves rearward for primary extraction, a feature shared with several other mid-20th-century machine guns

In short, the FN CAL was an early, innovative attempt to field a affordable 5.56 mm rifle, but it didn’t succeed commercially and paved the way for FN’s more successful FNC design.