The G-3 was first taken into German Army service in 1959. Since then, it has been sold and manufactured in so many countries, it may be encountered almost anywhere in the world.
The G-3 is based on the design of the Spanish CETME-58; however, the CETME-58 was itself based on a Nazi design that was never produced. The G-3 was the first Heckler & Koch rifle to use roller-locking action that became synonymous with the company’s name. It was built from steel stampings and cheap-yet-strong plastics; as a result it is not a pretty weapon, but it is very robust.
There are several variants of the G-3 available, in addition to related designs such as the PSG-1 and MSG-90 sniper rifles, HK-33 and G-41 assault rifles, and HK-11 and HK-21 machineguns.
The basic G-3 uses a wooden butt and a flip rear sight, and has no flash suppressor. The G-3A1 is a folding-butt version of the G-3. The G-3A2 introduced a rotary rear sight, which has been the standard G-3 sight since. The G-3A3 refined the foresight, changed to a plastic butt, and added a prong-type flash suppressor. Along with the G-3A4, it is the standard production version of the G-3. The G-3A3ZF is identical to the G-3A3, but is fitted with a telescopic sight. The G-3SG/1 is a police sniping rifle; it is made by taking the best-performing G-3A3s from production batches, and adding a set trigger unit and a Schmidt & Bender telescopic sight. (The set trigger does not function when the G-3SG/1 is set on automatic.) The G-3KA4 is a short-barreled carbine variant of the G-3A4. The G-3A5 is identical to the G-3A3, but was made for sale to Denmark. The G-3A6 is a license-produced G-3A3 made in Iran. The G-3PT can be made by modifying any G-3 with parts to fire .22 Long Rifle ammunition; this is done for training purposes. The resulting weapon does not involve the removal of any standard G-3 parts; instead, a subcaliber tube is inserted into the barrel and a magazine insert is used that fits into a standard G-3 magazine.
The AR-10 rifle, designed by the Eugene Stoner at the Armalite division of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corp, seen no significant success at the time it had been introduced, but it still had some historical significance since the AR-10 served as a basis for the further development of the much more successful AR-15/ M16 series rifles.
Basically, earliest AR-15 prototypes were no more than a scaled-down AR-10. The AR-10 was intended for the US Army trials for a new battle rifle, to replace the venerable M1 Garand. AR-10, with the first prototype built in 1955, came too late for these trials,and was too unconventional for conservative minds in the US Army, and consequently lost the trials to the T44 rifle, which was adopted in the 1957 as the M14.
The AR-10 was ready for mass production by the 1960, but very few were made in USA.
A manufacturing license had been sold to the Dutch company Artillerie Inrichtingen. Only Sudan and the Portugal apparently bought some AR-10 rifles for their military, and the production of the AR-10 had been ceased in the early or mid-1960s, with only about 10 000 military AR-10 being ever made.
Some two or three decades later, the reorganized Armalite company brought the modified AR-10 rifle back to civilian and police markets.
