Steyr AUG

   The Steyr AUG has been developed since the late 1960s by the Austrian Steyr-Daimler-Puch company in conjunction with the Austrian Army. The AUG stands for Universal Army Rifle. This assault rifle has been adopted in 1977 as the StG.77. It's production commenced in 1978. It replaced the obsolete StG.58 assault rifle, which was a license-built version of the FN FAL. Since it's introduction the AUG gained serious popularity. It had been adopted by a number of countries. This weapon is license produced in Australia as the Lithgow F88, commonly known as Austeyr. The AUG can be considered as the most commercially successful bullpup design to date.

   The Steyr AUG is chambered for the 5.56 x 45 mm standard NATO round. It is a gas operated, selective fire rifle with bullpup layout. This weapon was considered to be revolutionary in many respects when it first appeared. The Steyr AUG made it's name for it's reliability, good ergonomics and decent accuracy.

   The Steyr AUG has a modular design. It was designed as a family of rifles that could be quickly adapted to a variety of roles by simply changing the barrel. There are four basic barrels. The standard rifle barrel is 508 mm long. Later include a compact barrel (350 mm long), carbine barrel (407 mm long), and the light machine gun barrel (621 mm long). The last mentioned is fitted with integral folding bipod. Barrel replacement takes only a few seconds.

   This firearm has a plastic housing. It is worth mentioning that internal design also employs a high level of synthetic and advanced alloy components. The AUG is fully ambidextrous. There are two symmetrical ejection ports, one of which is always covered. Enlarged triggerguard of this assault rifle allows to fire wearing winter gloves.

   The safety button is located above the pistol grip. The AUG has got no separate fire mode selector. The trigger itself is used to control the mode of fire. Pulling it half the way, will result in a single shot, while the full pull will result in full-auto fire.

   The Steyr AUG is fed from box-shaped translucent polymer magazines, that hold 30 rounds. A light machine gun version is fed from extended 42 round magazines. Both of these magazines are interchangeable.

   This rifle is fitted with integral telescopic 1.5x magnification sight as a primary sighting equipment. It is designed to be calibrated for 300 m range. At the top of the sight housing there is a back-up iron sight, used in emergency.

   Austrian Army rifles had no bayonet lug, however some export versions were fitted with bayonets. Rifles equipped with 407 mm and 508 mm barrels are capable of launching barrel-mounted riffle grenades. A modified AUG is compatible with the M203 underbarrel grenade launcher.

Variants

   Steyr AUG A1 a standard version, introduced in 1977;

   Steyr AUG A2 an updated version, produced since 1997. It features a redesigned charging handle and a standard detachable scope, mounted on a standard Picatinny-type rail;

   Steyr AUG A3 the most recent version, produced since 2005. It is fitted with four Picatinny-type rails and has no integrated sighting equipment. This weapon can be fitted with any scope or night vision sight;

   Steyr AUG P a semi-automatic version with a shorter barrel. It was specially designed for the civilian operators and law enforcement agencies;

   Steyr AUG Para submachine gun, chambered for the 9 x 19 mm round. It has unique 420 mm barrel with different charging handle and a magazine conversion insert. It uses standard 25-round magazines from a Steyr TMP submachine gun. A conversion kit is available, which is used to transform any rifle variant into the submachine gun;

   Lithgow F88 Austeyr, an Australian Army modified version of the AUG A1. This version also has it's own subversions.