Battle rifle in the context of FN FAL

The Heckler & Koch G3 (German: Gewehr 3) is a select-fire battle rifle chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO developed in the 1950s by the German firearms manufacturer Heckler & Koch, in collaboration with the Spanish state-owned firearms manufacturer CETME. The G3 was the service rifle of the German Bundeswehr until it was replaced by the Heckler & Koch G36 in the 1990s, and was adopted into service with numerous other countries.

The G3 has been exported to over 70 countries and manufactured under license in at least 15 countries. Over 7.8 million G3s have been produced. Its modular design was used for several other HK firearm models, including the HK21, MP5, HK33, PSG1, and G41.

An assault rifle is a select fire rifle that uses an intermediate-rifle cartridge and a detachable magazine. Assault rifles were first put into mass production and accepted into widespread service during World War II. The first assault rifle to see major usage was the German StG 44, a development of the earlier Mkb 42. While immediately after World War II, NATO countries were equipped with battle rifles, the development of the M16 rifle during the Vietnam War prompted the adoption of assault rifles by the rest of NATO. By the end of the 20th century, assault rifles had become the standard weapon in most of the world's armies, replacing full-powered rifles and submachine guns in most roles. The two most successful modern assault rifles are the AK-47 and the M16 designs and their derivatives.

A service rifle (or standard-issue rifle) is a rifle a military issues to its regular infantry. In modern militaries, this is generally a versatile, rugged, and reliable assault rifle or battle rifle, suitable for use in nearly all environments and is effective in most combat situations. Almost all modern militaries are issued service pistols as sidearms to accompany their service rifles. The term can also be used to describe weapons issued by non-military forces, such as law enforcement or paramilitaries.

If the issued weapon is not a rifle or carbine, but instead a different type of firearm intended to serve in a specialized role such as a combat shotgun, submachine gun, or light machine gun, it is called a service firearm or service weapon.

The Heckler & Koch G36 (German: Gewehr 36) is an assault rifle designed in the early 1990s by German weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch. It is chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO, and replaced the heavier G3 battle rifle chambered in 7.62×51mm. The G36 was accepted into service with the Bundeswehr in 1997. Since then, it has been a popular export, and has seen active service in military and police units in several countries, including Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The G36 is gas-operated and feeds from a 30-round detachable box magazine or 100-round C-Mag drum magazine.

In 2012, the G36 was found to suffer from significant accuracy issues due to thermal expansion of the barrel, prompting a search for a replacement. In 2017, the Bundeswehr launched the System Sturmgewehr Bundeswehr, a program designed to field a replacement for the G36. The weapons put forth were the Heckler & Koch HK416, Heckler & Koch HK433, and the Haenel MK 556. The G95A1 and G95KA1, both variants of the HK416, were selected in 2022.

The HK21 is a German 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun, developed in 1961 by small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch and based on the G3 battle rifle. The weapon is in use with the armed forces of several Asian, African and Latin American countries. It was also license-manufactured by Fábrica de Braço de Prata in Portugal as the m/968 and in Mexico by SEDENA as the MG21. In the German military (Bundeswehr) and the federal police (Bundespolizei) it is designated "G8".

A fully powered cartridge, also called full-power cartridge or full-size cartridge, is an umbrella term describing any rifle cartridge that emphasizes ballistics performance and single-shot accuracy, with little or no concern to its weight or recoil. The term generally refers to traditional cartridges used in machine guns, bolt action and semi-automatic service rifles and select fire battle rifles prior to, during and immediately after the World Wars and into the early Cold War era, and was a retronym originally made to differentiate from intermediate-power rifle cartridges that gained widespread adoption into military service after World War II.

Full-power cartridges often have a caliber comparable to or greater than 7.5 mm (0.30 in) and a maximum effective range of at least 800 m (870 yd), and are intended for engaging targets beyond 300 m (330 yd). However, cartridges with calibers as narrow as 6.5 mm (0.26 in) have been described as being a full-power rifle cartridge. According the cartridge's overall length (COL), full-power cartridges can be grouped into long-action or "standard-action" cartridges, which are traditional cartridges (exemplified by the .30-06 Springfield, 8mm Mauser and 7.62×54mmR) with a COL between 72 and 85 mm (2.8 and 3.3 in); and short-action cartridges (such as the .308 Winchester and 6.5mm Creedmoor), which have a COL between 57 and 72 mm (2.2 and 2.8 in) and largely replaced long-action cartridges as battle rifle service ammunitions since the Cold War. Cartridges with a COL above 85mm are often however considered magnum cartridges instead of "full-powered".

An intermediate cartridge is a rifle/carbine cartridge that has significantly greater power than a pistol cartridge but still has a reduced muzzle energy compared to fully powered cartridges (such as the .303 British, 7.62×54mmR, 7.65×53mm Mauser, 7.92×57mm Mauser, 7.7×58mm Arisaka, .30-06 Springfield, or 7.62×51mm NATO), and therefore is regarded as being "intermediate" between traditional rifle and handgun cartridges.

As their recoil is significantly reduced compared to full-power cartridges, fully automatic rifles firing intermediate cartridges are relatively easy to control. However, even though they are less powerful than a traditional full-power cartridge, the external ballistics are still sufficient for an effective range of 300–600 metres (330–660 yd), which covers most typical infantry engagement situations in modern warfare. This allowed for the development of the assault rifle, a type of versatile selective fire small arms that is lighter and more compact than traditional battle rifles that fire full-power cartridges.

Small arms and light weapons (SALW), in arms control protocols, are two main classes of man-portable weapons.

Small arms, broadly speaking, are individual-service (i.e. for carry and operation by individual infantrymen) kinetic projectile firearms. These include: handguns (revolvers, pistols, derringers, and machine pistols), muskets, rifled muskets, shotguns, rifles (assault rifles, battle rifles, carbines, designated marksman rifles, short-barreled rifles, sniper rifles, etc.), submachine guns, personal defense weapons, squad automatic weapons, and light machine guns.

An automatic rifle is a type of autoloading rifle that is capable of fully automatic fire. Automatic rifles are generally select-fire weapons capable of firing in semi-automatic and automatic firing modes (some automatic rifles are capable of burst-fire as well). Automatic rifles are distinguished from semi-automatic rifles in their ability to fire more than one shot in succession once the trigger is pulled. Most automatic rifles are further subcategorized as battle rifles or assault rifles.

The M14 rifle, officially the United States Rifle, Caliber 7.62 mm, M14, is an American battle rifle chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge. It became the standard-issue rifle for the U.S. military in 1957, replacing the M1 Garand rifle in service with the U.S. Army by 1958 and the U.S. Marine Corps by 1965; deliveries of service rifles to the U.S. Army began in 1959. The M14 was used by the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps for Basic and Advanced Individual Training from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s.

The M14 was the last American battle rifle issued in quantity to U.S. military personnel. In 1967, it was officially replaced by the M16 assault rifle, a lighter weapon with a smaller 5.56×45mm intermediate cartridge. The M14 rifle remains in limited service across all branches of the U.S. military, with variants used as sniper and designated marksman rifles, accurized competition weapons, and ceremonial weapons by honor guards, color guards, drill teams, and ceremonial guards. Civilian semi-automatic variants are used for hunting, target shooting, and shooting competitions.

The StG 44 (abbreviation of Sturmgewehr 44, "assault rifle 44") is a German assault rifle developed during World War II by Hugo Schmeisser. It is also known by its early designations as the MP 43 and MP 44 (Maschinenpistole 43 and 44). The StG 44 was an improvement of an earlier design, the Maschinenkarabiner 42(H).

The StG 44 was the first successful assault rifle, with features including an intermediate cartridge, controllable automatic fire, a more compact design than a battle rifle with a higher rate of fire, and being designed primarily for hitting targets within a few hundred metres. Other rifles at the time were designed to hit targets at greater ranges, but this was found to be in excess of the range in which most combat engagements actually took place.

The SVT-40 (Russian: Самозарядная винтовка Токарева, образец 1940 года, romanized: Samozaryadnaya vintovka Tokareva, obrazets 1940 goda, lit. 'Tokarev's self-loading rifle, model of 1940') is a semi-automatic battle rifle developed in the Soviet Union that saw widespread service during and after World War II. It was intended to be the new service rifle of the Soviet Red Army. However, its production was disrupted by the Axis invasion in 1941, resulting in a change back to the Mosin–Nagant rifle for the duration of the war, although both rifles served concurrently.

The Fabrique Nationale Model 1949 (often referred to as the FN-49, SAFN, or AFN (automatic rifle version) is an autoloading battle rifle designed by Belgian small arms designer Dieudonné Saive in 1947. It was adopted by the militaries of Argentina, Belgium, the Belgian Congo, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Luxembourg, and Venezuela. The selective fire version produced for Belgium was known as the AFN.

While well regarded for its high build quality and reliability in comparison to the rifles of the time, its marketability was limited, as it was not developed in time for use in World War II but later, as many militaries had already begun the switch to selective fire battle rifles. About half of FN-49s were produced as selective fire automatic rifles, but the small 10 round box magazine limited the usefulness of the fully automatic feature.

The CETME Model 58 is a stamped-steel, select-fire battle rifle produced by the Spanish armaments manufacturer Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales Especiales (CETME). The Model 58 used a 20-round box magazine and was chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO round (although originally designed for the 7.92×41mm CETME cartridge and later for the reduced power Spanish 7.62×51mm cartridge). The CETME 58 would become the foundation of the widely deployed German Heckler & Koch G3 battle rifle. Semi-automatic variants were also produced for the civilian market.

The CETME Model L is a Spanish 5.56×45mm NATO assault rifle developed in the late 1970s at the state-owned small arms research and development establishment CETME (Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales Especiales) located in Madrid. The rifle retains many of the proven design elements the institute had used previously in its CETME Model 58 battle rifles.

The weapon was successfully trialled between 1981–1982 and approved for serial production in 1984 at the Empresa Nacional Santa Bárbara factory (currently Santa Bárbara Sistemas, integrated into General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems division). The Model L replaced the 7.62mm CETME Model C in service with the Spanish Army and the first rifles were delivered in 1987, by which time orders for approximately 60,000 had been placed. From 1999 onwards the Model L has now been largely replaced in Spanish service with a license-built variant of the Heckler & Koch G36E.