{"id":59490,"date":"2025-05-05T21:31:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T19:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=59490"},"modified":"2025-05-10T22:35:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T20:35:27","slug":"the-argentine-uniform-of-the-falklands-war-and-a-curiosity-about-its-rifles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/05\/05\/the-argentine-uniform-of-the-falklands-war-and-a-curiosity-about-its-rifles\/","title":{"rendered":"The Argentine uniform of the Falklands War and a curiosity about its rifles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Falklands War, in 1982, was a conflict in which both sides used Western equipment and weapons.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/04\/09\/a-tour-of-the-falkland-islands-and-the-remains-of-the-1982-war-there\/\">A tour of the Falkland Islands and the remains of the 1982 war there<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/07\/23\/an-interesting-report-on-the-falklands-war-between-argentina-and-the-united-kingdom\/\">An interesting report on the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>In the Argentine case, <strong>the uniform and individual equipment of each soldier consisted of a local copy of the American M1 helmet<\/strong> (adopted by Argentina in the 1960s) and pieces of clothing from various sources, including an Israeli-made coat. Yesterday, the channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@TropaGuripa\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tropa Guripa<\/a> (which I recommend subscribing to if you like history and military recreation) <strong>published an excellent video reviewing what the individual equipment of the Argentine soldier was like in that war<\/strong>, which was fought in a territory with a very cold climate, which posed no small number of problems for both sides (the video is in Spanish but has English subtitles; you can activate them in the bottom bar of the player):<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"UNIFORMES MILITARES - EJ\u00c9RCITO ARGENTINO EN MALVINAS \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf7\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/L6EITcCvsaQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As the Tropa Guripa video points out, <strong>the Argentines and the British used very similar rifles<\/strong>. The Argentine Army used a locally manufactured version under license of the <strong>Belgian FN FAL assault rifle<\/strong> (\"Fusil Automatique L\u00e9ger\" - Light Automatic Rifle, in French), caliber 7.62 mm. <strong>It is a very powerful weapon and, in fact, in automatic fire creates a fairly large arc of dispersion of shots<\/strong>, since it is difficult to control.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54499229881_5500b7ee01_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54499229881_71ed51dbc7_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">British soldiers in the Falklands War with L1A1 rifles.<\/div>\n<p>In turn, <strong>the British Army used the L1A1 (SLR) assault rifle, the British version of the FN FAL<\/strong>. The main difference between the two assault rifles is that <strong>the British model could only fire in semi-automatic mode, that is, single shot<\/strong>. Its fire selector only had two positions: \"S\" (for \"safe\") and \"R\" (for \"repetition\"). <strong>The L1A1 used 20- or 30-round magazines.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54499492603_05df893dc0_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54499492603_05df893dc0_o.jpg\" style=\"width:661px; height:auto; border:2px solid #7F7261;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">An Argentine FN FAL rifle (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/museomalvinas.cultura.gob.ar\/el-fusil-de-malvinas\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Museo Malvinas<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p>In contrast, <strong>the Argentine FN FAL (known as the \"Light Automatic Rifle\") included an automatic fire option<\/strong> in addition to the single-shot option. In automatic fire, it could reach 700 rounds per minute. <strong>Argentina used four variants of this rifle: the FAL I<\/strong> (with a wooden stock, pistol grip, forend, and carrying handle, and a barrel without a flash suppressor), <strong>the FAL II<\/strong> (which replaced the wood with plastic and had a barrel with a flash suppressor), <strong>the FAL PARA III<\/strong> (a local version of the FAL 50.63 and 50.64 for paratroopers, with a folding stock), <strong>and the FAL IV<\/strong> (a modernization of the FAL I but replacing the wood with plastic).<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54499413289_1f9ce6273f_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54499413289_274b255c59_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">Argentine FN FAL rifles stacked after the war. One of them bears a picture of the Virgin Mary on the stock (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/museomalvinas.cultura.gob.ar\/el-fusil-de-malvinas\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Museo Malvinas<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p><strong>There is one other notable difference between the Argentine FN FAL and the British L1A1<\/strong>, a difference that gave British soldiers a certain advantage in that war. <strong>The Argentine FAL used metric measurements<\/strong>, as did the rifles of this type manufactured in Belgium and most of the countries that manufactured them under license. However, <strong>the L1A1 used the imperial system<\/strong>, with measurements in inches instead of millimeters. This in theory shouldn't have made much of a difference, but in reality it did, as <strong>the L1A1 had slightly larger dimensions in some of its parts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54498365747_cf567c7d09_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54498365747_2ff4abf0bd_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">Argentine soldiers with FN FAL rifles in a trench in the Falkland Islands.<\/div>\n<p>According to various sources, <strong>the L1A1 could use both imperial and metric magazines<\/strong>, including the 20-round magazines carried by Argentine soldiers for their rifles. However, <strong>the Argentine FN FALs could not use the L1A1 magazines<\/strong>, giving British soldiers an advantage when it came to capturing captured ammunition. It should be noted, however, that <strong>both rifles used the same type of ammunition: the 7.62 \u00d7 51 mm NATO cartridge<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54499492633_8ea6aeff5e_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54499492633_8ea6aeff5e_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">Several Argentine soldiers in the Falkland Islands. The soldier on the right is carrying an FN FAL PARA III with a folding stock.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Falklands War, in 1982, was a conflict in which both sides used Western equipment and weapons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11549],"tags":[2081,24365,9997,16777,17078,24362,24363,24366,10678],"class_list":["post-59490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-military-history","tag-argentina","tag-argentine-army","tag-british-army","tag-falkland-islands","tag-falklands-war","tag-fn-fal","tag-l1a1-slr","tag-m-1-helmet","tag-united-kingdom"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-15 08:53:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}