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ArmaLite AR-18
The AR-18 is a gas-operated, selective-fire rifle chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO ammunition. The AR-18 was designed at ArmaLite in California by Arthur Miller, Eugene Stoner, George Sullivan, and Charles Dorchester in 1963 as an alternative to the AR-15 design, which had just been selected by the U.S. military as the M16. While the AR-18 was never adopted as the standard service rifle of any nation, its production licence was sold to companies in Japan and the United Kingdom, and it is said to have influenced many later weapons such as the British SA80,〔"It’s especially interesting to note that the RSAF’s later 5.56mm rifle, the SA-80, (later adopted as the L85) was nothing more than a bullpup version of the AR-180"〕〔http://www.gunmart.net/militaria/article/armalite_sterling_ar-18_5.56mm_rifle "if you ever take an SA80 apart, or see a picture of one fully disassembled, then look very closely at the bolt and gas system, as it’s almost a direct copy of the old AR-18 system"〕〔http://www.guns.com/2014/03/20/armalite-ar18-rifles-eugene-stoners-redheaded-stepchild-love-redheads/"When the ArmaLite Model 18 was in its last days of production, weapons engineers at Enfield borrowed heavily from its design for ‘inspiration’ on their new 5.56mm rifle. Known then as the Enfield Weapons System and now as the L85, the bullpup rifle of the British military is at its heart a modified AR18 thrown into a radically different stock."〕 the Singaporean SAR-80 and SR-88,〔http://www.guns.com/2014/03/20/armalite-ar18-rifles-eugene-stoners-redheaded-stepchild-love-redheads/ "Borrowing a page from their Commonwealth partner, the Singapore-made SAR80/SR88 rifles have the same AR18 action. Nevertheless, the Brits got it honest, with both the Austrians and the Germans also using similar short-stroke gas piston layouts on the Steyr AUG and HKG36 rifles".〕 the American Adaptive Combat Rifle, and the Heckler and Koch G36. Through the Provisional IRA, which was noted for its use of the rifle, the rifle became known as the "Widowmaker".
==Background==
Soon after the adoption of the 7.62×51mm NATO M14 rifle in 1957, the U.S. Army's Continental Army Command (CONARC) began an investigation of small-caliber, high-velocity (SCHV) rifles as an offshoot of the military's existing research program, Project SALVO. ArmaLite and Winchester Arms were solicited by CONARC to provide prototype automatic rifles chambered for high-velocity centerfire .22 rounds. ArmaLite's AR-15 was a scaled-down version of the 7.62mm AR-10, which had appeared too late to be a serious contender against the M14 for adoption by the US Army. Its competitor was the Winchester .224 Light Rifle,〔http://www.forgottenweapons.com/winchester-224-e2-manual〕 a 'Carbine' Williams prototype carbine design in a .22 high velocity round which was similar to, but not interchangeable with, the .223 Remington (5.56×45mm). During the protracted U.S. military trials of the AR-15, ArmaLite's corporate owners Fairchild essentially gave up on the design, and sold the AR-15 production rights to Colt. Fairchild also spun off ArmaLite as an independent company, allowing the new owners to buy all of the company's designs except for the AR-10 and AR-15. When the U.S. military ultimately selected the AR-15 as the M16, ArmaLite could no longer profit from its adoption.
The Armalite AR-16 appeared in the later 1950s. The AR-16, a 7.62mm NATO selective-fire rifle, was Eugene Stoner's final design for ArmaLite. The AR-16 and its predecessor, the AR-12 were designed by Stoner in response to demands by the military forces of smaller, less developed nations for a less expensive, yet state-of-the-art selective-fire military rifle that unlike the AR-10 and AR-15, could be produced inexpensively of heavy-gauge sheet metal using automatic screw machines, lathes, and presses.〔Smith, W.H.B. and Smith, Joseph E. (ed.) ''Small Arms of the World'', 9th ed., Harrisburg, PA: The Stackpole Company, ISBN 978-0-81171-566-9 (1969), p. 656〕〔Walter, John, ''Rifles of the World'', Iola, WI: Krause Publications, ISBN 978-0-89689-241-5 (2006), p. 42〕 The AR-12 originally featured a direct-impingement (DI) gas operation system, but this was changed to a more conventional short-stroke gas piston in the AR-16 after ArmaLite sold the production rights to the DI system to Colt Firearms.〔 The AR-16 had a short, 15-inch barrel, hinged wooden butt, and weighed 8.75 pounds empty; only three examples were built.〔 Eugene Stoner left ArmaLite in 1961, shortly before Fairchild divested itself of ownership.〔Pikula, Sam (Major), ''The ArmaLite AR-10'', Regnum Fund Press (1998), ISBN 9986-494-38-9, p. 92〕
The U.S. military's later adoption of the AR-15 gave legitimacy to its 5.56mm cartridge, and ArmaLite sought to develop a competing design chambered in 5.56mm that did not infringe on the Colt licence agreement. With Stoner gone, it was decided to scale down the AR-16, and ArmaLite's new chief designer, Arthur Miller, embarked on the project. The resulting 5.56mm design appeared in 1963 and was named the AR-18. Miller later received for the rifle in 1969.
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