Beretta AR70/90

The AR70/90 was born from a corporate breakup: in 1968, Beretta walked away from a five-year joint venture with SIG to develop the SG 530 and quietly took the design home to Gardone Val Trompia, where it became the AR70/.223. When that rifle's stamped receiver proved too weak under sustained fire, Beretta rebuilt the entire platform from the ground up - and the AR70/90 that won the 1989 Italian Army trials beat both an Italian-built HK G41 and a Galil SAR clone, despite not being chambered in the cartridge Beretta would have preferred (the company had lobbied hard to keep the 7.62 NATO BM59 in service for another decade).

Two distinct families share the AR70 designation. The original AR70/.223 (1972) was the SIG SG 530-derived rifle with a stamped receiver; it was issued only in limited numbers to COMSUBIN, the San Marco Battalion, NOCS and the Italian Air Force VAM. The AR70/90 (1990) is a heavily redesigned successor with a forged steel receiver, STANAG magazine well, and integrated carrying handle, and is the only version adopted by the regular Italian Armed Forces. Weight of the standard AR70/90 is variously cited as 3.99 kg (Wikipedia / military factory) and 4.35 kg (weaponsystems.net) - the higher figure likely includes the bipod and scope rail. The AS 70/90 squad automatic weapon variant uses a heavier 465 mm barrel, bipod, and an open-bolt mechanism that fires from the open bolt at full automatic only (selector 'S - 1 - F') at a higher cyclic rate of approximately 800 rpm. Italian Army shipments include the SCP70/90 with a 369 mm barrel for the Folgore Brigade paratroopers and Col Moschin special-operations regiment, while the Alpini have favoured the SC70/90 with side-folding stock. Production figures have not been published but are believed to be in the low hundreds of thousands.