Beretta AR-70 Series

     Notes: The AR-70 began in 1968, when Italy belatedly decided to adopt the 5.56mm NATO cartridge that most of the rest of NATO was already using for its assault rifles.  They had been using the 7.62mm NATO-firing BM-59 series, but after a couple of years of testing candidates (and stalling somewhat), they adopted the AR-70 series (also called the AR-70/223) in 1970.

     The AR-70 series, though reminiscent in appearance of the Stoner 63 series, has nothing to do with the Stoner in design; the operation is a derivative of the AK-47 gas system, with a modified M-1 Garand/BM-59 bolt.  Construction is largely of stamped steel, and nonmetallic parts are of synthetics or plastics.  (Prototypes, however, used wooden furniture.)  The handguard was originally ribbed, but this was later changed to a fluted design.  The fire selector is conventional and mounted on the left side of the receiver, with the charging handle on the right side.  The sights are conventional and similar to those found on most assault rifles, but the AR-70 also has folding tangent leaf sights for use with rifle grenades.  The AR-70 series also has a gas cutoff for use with older rifle grenades.  The receiver has a mount for use with most NATO-type optics of the period, and the bayonet lug accepts most US-pattern bayonets. 

     The AR-70 is the standard assault rifle using a 17.7-inch barrel; the SC-70 is the paratroopers' carbine, essentially the same weapon with a folding steel stock coated with plastic. There is also a SCS-70 special paratroopers' carbine, with a folding stock and shortened 12.6-inch barrel; it cannot use a bayonet, and the use of rifle grenades requires the attachment of a clip-on muzzle device and grenade sights.  The LM-70 is a heavy-barreled sharpshooters' weapon, and the price includes a telescopic sight and bipod.  The AR-70 series are fed by proprietary magazines, and cannot use any other type of magazines.

     By the mid-1980s, it was felt that the AR-70 was getting long in the tooth, and a series of modernization upgrades were taken to extend the service life of the weapon.  This resulted in the AR-70/90 series.  General modifications include simplified manufacturing processes, a light alloy lower receiver (with hardened steel rails for the bolt to move upon), a straight-line layout (done mostly by raising the heel of the stock), a detachable carrying handle (when removed, the AR-70/90 can use any sort of STANAG-compliant optics or devices), and an ambidextrous fire selector.  The standard selector lever allows for both bursts and full automatic fire, but versions are also available which omit the burst-firing feature.  The magazine well was modified to accept M-16-type magazines of any sort (and it cannot use the older AR-70 magazines).  Any member of the series may be fitted with a removable folding bipod, with the exception of the LM-70/90, where the bipod is fixed.  In addition to being able to fire rifle grenades, the AR-70/90 and SC-70/90 may also mount underbarrel grenade launchers.  Rifling twist was changed for compatibility with the new SS-109 ammunition.

     The AR-70/90 uses a 17.7-inch barrel and is the standard assault rifle version; the SC-70/90 is the same weapon with a folding stock.  The SCP-70/90 is a paratrooper’s carbine, with a 14.17-inch barrel and a folding stock.  The SCS-70/90 is designed for special operations (like its SCS-70 predecessor); it uses a 13.86-inch barrel, but requires adapters to use rifle grenades, cannot mount underbarrel grenade launchers, and cannot use bayonets.  It also has no ability to use the bipod.  The LM-70/90 is, of course, the equivalent of the LM-70 in the AR-70/90 series.

     The AR-70 and AR-70/90 have also been sold on the civilian market; often, these semiautomatic-only versions will often be seen with thumbhole wooden stocks, omitted flash suppressors, and/or no bayonet lugs.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: At the start of the Twilight War, about half the Italian armed forces were still using the AR-70 and the LM-70; most SC-70s and SCS-70s had been replaced with their AR-70/90 equivalents.  Jordan and Malaysia were also using the AR-70 series.  There were also a surprising amount of Romanian irregular forces found to be armed with the AR-70 series, and a lot of Swiss and Austrian civilians had apparently managed to capture AR-70 series weapons as well.  Only about half the Italian military’s AR-70s and LM-70s had been replaced with the AR-70/90 and LM-70/90, but most of the SC-70s and SCS-70s had been replaced with their AR-70/90 equivalents.  As above, a lot of these weapons were found in the hands of Swiss and Austrian civilians during and after the Twilight War. 

     Merc 2000 Notes: Jordanian AR-70s were largely replaced by M-16A2s and M-4s by 2000; Italian AR-70s were almost entirely replaced by AR-70/90s by the late 1990s.  The AR-70/90 was very much an “Italian-only” weapon; there were a lot of cheaper weapons to be found on the international market. 

*For AR-70/90 series weapons without a burst firing feature, subtract $182 from the price.

Beretta ARX-160

     Notes: Called during development the AR-160X, the ARX-160 was originally designed to compete in the US SCAR competition.  Other than by US testers, the ARX-160 was first seen at SOFEX 2008 in Jordan. It lost the SCAR competition, but remained in development; currently, some Italian special ops units are using it, Albania’s nascent special ops units are using it (they have some 100 of them), and it is being used as a base for Italy’s Soldato Futuro program, something similar to the FN and the Belgian government’s F-2000 rifle family, France’s PAPOP system, and the US Future Soldier program. It is still being developed as of January 2010, but most of the development of the rifle itself is complete.  What’s being developed now is various equipment and packages/add-ons for the ARX-160 and the Soldato Futuro program.  Some of these “add-ons” include a laser-pointer, a thermal imager, a rangefinder, a ballistic computer, an ACOG-type sight, a combination thermal imager/day telescopic sight/ACOG/laser pointer, a 40mm underbarrel grenade launcher, and a 12-gauge underbarrel pump shotgun designed for use with magnum shells.  I say “add-on” because these accessories are designed so be semi-integrated with the ARX-160 upon which they are mounted, reducing bulk.  For now, I will limit my scope to the rifle itself.

     The ARX-160 is gas piston-operated, using a rotating bolt for breech locking, and firing from a closed bolt.  The ARX-160 can use magazines designed for it, most magazines designed for the particular chambering used, or STANAG magazines. Though several lengths of barrel will be delineated below, the barrels are actually quickly removed and changed in the field with no special tools.  The receiver is of light-alloy-strengthened polymer, with the upper and lower receivers collected by quick-release locks instead of push-pull pins like most military weapons these days.  The ARX-160 uses a surprisingly small length of action, making the overall length of the ARX-160 itself surprisingly short.  Above the receiver is a full-length (extending to the front sight) MIL-STD-1913 rail made of aircraft-quality aluminum.  Unlike most conventional-design (ie, non-bullpup) rifles, the ARX-160 can be assembled to be left-handed or right-handed; this is necessary due to the short length of the receiver.  This includes the charging handle, which is attached to the bolt carrier.  The fire controls themselves are ambidextrous. The fore-end also has three MIL-STD-1913 rails (at 3, 6, and 9-o’clock).  The lower rail is specially strengthened to be able to solidly-accept grenade launchers, shotguns, foregrips, and bipods.  The stock is also polymer and folds to the right as well as being telescoping to adjust further to shooter size and the tactical situation. The stock has a textured rubber plate to eliminate slip, not as a recoil pad.

     The ARX-160 has a total of six sling attachment points, allowing the use of almost all types of slings in use today.  The primary development chambering has been 5.56mm NATO, but the ARX-160 can be quickly changed to 6.8mm SPC, 7.62mm Kalashnikov, or 5,45mm Kalashnikov by a change of barrel, lower receiver, and bolt head.  Maintenance and field stripping are said to be very simple (one Beretta designer said that if you can play with LEGOs, you can maintain an ARX-160 and add any component).  Currently, the ARX-160 is designed with a 12-inch-barrel Special Forces Carbine (SFC) version, a 16-inch standard carbine, and a 16-inch Designated Marksman Carbine version, with a heavy-profile match-quality carbine and a floating barrel.  14-inch, 20-inch, and 20-inch Designated Marksman versions have been rumored, and you know I could not resist that.  Designated Marksman versions below include a bipod and a light telescopic sight. Unusually for an assault rifle, the ARX-160 has a quick-change barrel; this is more to facilitate changes between barrel lengths than to change a hot barrel.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: The ARX-160 is not available in the Twilight 2000 timeline.

Beretta P-30

     Notes: This odd M-1 Carbine variant was inspired by the carbines supplied by the US Government after World War 2 and Soviet experiments with semiautomatic and automatic rifles during that war.  The result is basically an M-2 Carbine using a modified Tokarev action instead of the standard M-1/M-2 Carbine action.  An odd feature of this weapon is that no visible parts move during firing; the necessary movements are all internal.  The rifle used a virtually standard M-1 Carbine stock, and fired M-1 Carbine ammunition.  The P-30 had two triggers; the rear trigger fired semiautomatic, unless the front trigger was pulled first (acting as sort of a selector lever).