The new battle rifles would arm almost every NATO nation by the 1950s were lightweight, box fed, and chambered in 7.61x51mm NATO. The Belgian FN FAL dominated this class of weapon, proving to be ...

The new battle rifles would arm almost every NATO nation by the 1950s were lightweight, ... But it had two primary competitors, the German/Spanish G3/CETME and the American M14.

Heckler & Koch’s select-fire G3 battle rifle, chambered in 7.62 NATO, earned the contract in 1959. The gun later served as the basis for the company’s HK21 machine gun, introduced in 1961.