What is the most widely-produced assault rifle of all time?
Type 81 assault rifle Type 81 assault rifle The Type 81 () is a Chinese-designed Kalashnikov and SKS based, second-generation, selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle adopted by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) since the mid-1980s. The weapon was introduced into PLA service in 1981 but did not become widely distributed until the late 1980s. It replaced the SKS and the Type 56 rifle (a Chinese license produced AK-47). Its first combat use came during the Sino-Vietnamese border conflicts of the mid-1980s. The PLA has replaced most of its Type-81s with the Type 95 or Type 03 series of weapons, though it is still
Assault rifle definition, a firearm must have at least the following characteristics to be considered an assault rifle: Rifles that meet most of these criteria, but not all, are technically not assault rifles, despite frequently being called such. For example: The Germans were the first to pioneer the assault rifle concept, during World War II, based upon research that showed that most firefights happen within 400 meters and that contemporary rifles were over-powered for most small arms combat. They would soon develop a select-fire intermediate powered rifle combining the firepower of a submachine gun with the range and accuracy of a rifle.