The CAL was a Belgian weapon manufactured by Fabrique Nationale. It was the first 5.56 mm rifle produced by the Fabrique Nationale. It resembled the company's highly successful FN FAL

FN FAL

The Fusil Automatique Léger or FAL is a self-loading, selective fire battle rifle produced by the Belgian armaments manufacturer Fabrique Nationale de Herstal . During the Cold War it was adopted by many North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries, with the notable exception of the United States...

, but was an original design. Unlike the FAL, it was a market failure, although its development led to the successful FN FNC

FN FNC

The FNC is a 5.56mm assault rifle developed by the Belgian arms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale of Herstal and introduced in the late 1970s.-Development:...

.

Design details

Prior to the development of the CAL, FN had already constructed a scaled-down FAL prototype before shelving the idea as unmarketable. Noting the growing sales success of the cheaper and simpler HK G3 rifle, FN decided that for any future rifle to be competitive in the marketplace, it would need to use fewer expensive precision-machined parts. These would be replaced by less expensive castings and stampings where possible. While the construction of the new CAL reflected these design principles, it was still relatively expensive and complex, and met with no significant sales. It was eventually dropped for the even less expensive FN FNC

FN FNC

The FNC is a 5.56mm assault rifle developed by the Belgian arms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale of Herstal and introduced in the late 1970s.-Development:...

. A small number of FN CALs were sold to the civilian market in the US.

Operation

Although the weapon resembled a scaled-down FN FAL

FN FAL

The Fusil Automatique Léger or FAL is a self-loading, selective fire battle rifle produced by the Belgian armaments manufacturer Fabrique Nationale de Herstal . During the Cold War it was adopted by many North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries, with the notable exception of the United States...

, it in fact used a rotating bolt

Rotating bolt

Rotating bolt is a method of locking originally developed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher and found in his Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 straight-pull bolt-action rifle designed for and issued to the Austro-Hungarian Army...

, unlike the FAL, which used a tilting bolt design. The earlier models of the CAL had a three-round selector system, which allowed the weapon to fire a three-round burst with each trigger pull. The CAL could also fire in fully and semi-automatic modes.

The gas system used a tappet

Tappet

A tappet is the noise made by a worn cam follower, however the term is widely used to represent the cam follower itself. In mechanical engineering it is a projection which imparts a linear motion to some other component within an assembly...

 piston rod to operate the bolt carrier, and the bolt itself had interrupted lugs to lock it into the chamber.