assault rifle, military firearm that is chambered for ammunition of reduced size or propellant charge and that has the capacity to switch between semiautomatic and fully automatic fire. Because they are light and portable yet still able to deliver a high volume of fire with reasonable accuracy at modern combat ranges of 1,000–1,600 feet (300–500 metres), assault rifles have replaced the high-powered bolt-action and semiautomatic rifles of the World War II era as the standard infantry weapon of modern armies. A hint at this new weapon had been given during World War I, when Vladimir Grigorevich Fyodorov, father of Russian
/PRNewswire/ The "Small Arms - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com s offering. Global Small Arms Market to.