Armalite AR-16

The ArmaLite AR-16 was an American battle rifle produced by ArmaLite and designed by Eugene Stoner in 1959, soon after the same company's AR-15. Unlike the AR-15 it was not aimed at the US Army; it was marketed to emerging nations with a limited industrial base. It was a gas-operated, selective-fire rifle with a rotating bolt, chambered for the 7.62x51mm cartridge, and it was built from simple sheet-metal pressings so that only the barrel, bolt carrier and a pair of brackets had to be machined. A carbine version with a folding stock was the only variant ever made, although a 9 mm submachine gun and a civilian sporting rifle were planned. ArmaLite even advertised that the machine tools used to make the gun could later be put to agricultural and office work. The rifle was briefly marketed in the early 1960s but never entered full production, because buyers were largely satisfied with the FN FAL, and ArmaLite reworked the idea in 5.56 mm as the AR-18.