Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne

Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne
Government-owned corporation (Subsidiary of Nexter defense conglomerate)
Industry Weapons
Fate Annexed
Successor Nexter
Founded 1764 (1764) in Charleville, Ardennes, France
Defunct 2001
Headquarters Saint-Étienne, France
Products Rifles, Pistols, Tanks, Weapon Systems
Website http://www.nexter-group.fr

The Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne (MAS) was a French state-owned manufacturing company located in the town of Saint-Étienne. It has since been merged into the state-owned Nexter defence conglomerate.

History

Saint-Étienne was well-known as a center of swords and knives manufacturing beginning in the Middle Ages. In 1665, a Royal Arms Depot was created in Paris to store military weapons made in Saint-Étienne. The Royal Arms Manufacture was created in 1764 under the supervision of the General Inspector of the Royal Arms Manufacture of Charleville.

12,000 weapons were being produced each year when the French Revolution began. The city was renamed Armsville during the revolutionary period and production increased to arm the Revolutionary Army.

Subsequently, the French Empire required a threefold increase in production to meet the needs of the Napoleonic Army in its conquest of Europe. In 1838, the annual production was well over 30,000 firearms.

In 1864, the modern factory was built, new steam-powered machines were installed and the first military standardized bolt-action rifle, the Chassepot, was produced from 1866 on, then the Gras rifle after 1874.

The MAC-designed Lebel rifle entered production in 1886. MAS later designed and manufactured the family of French 7.5 mm rifles, from the MAS 36 through the FSA MAS 49/56, then later the FAMAS (which uses the 5.56×45mm NATO round) .

Arms produced by MAS

Chassepot 1866
Revolver 1892
Fusil Berthier Mle 1907/15
Fusil Lebel 86/93 Modified R 35
FSA-1917
FSA MAS 49
PA Modele 1950
AA52 ANF1
FR F1
PA MAS G1
FA-MAS F1
FAMAS G2 FélinV1 prototype

Sources

Notes

  1. "French autoloading rifles. 1898-1979 (Proud promise), by Jean Huon, 1995, Collector Grade Publications. ISBN 0-88935-186-4. This volume ( in English )contains a detailed technical chapter describing the Lebel rifle and its ammunition. This volume primarily describes all French semi-automatic rifles since 1898, notably the Mle 1917 and Mle 1918 semi-automatic rifles, the Meunier (A6) rifle as well as the MAS 38-40 to MAS49 and 49/56 series.
  2. "La Manufacture Nationale d'Armes de Châtellerault(1819-1968)", Claude Lombard, 1987, Brissaud,162 Grande Rue, Poitiers, ISBN 2-902170-55-6 . This illustrated volume ( in French ) contains the production statistics for the Lebel rifle as well as complete technical accounts on the Gras, Kropatschek, Lebel and Berthier weapons and how they came to be designed and manufactured. This is regarded as the fundamental research volume on the subject. The author is a retired armament engineer who spent most of his career at Châtellerault and had full access to all the archives and the prototypes.
  3. "Military rifle and machine gun cartridges", Jean Huon, 1988, Ironside International Publishers, Alexandria, VA, ISBN 0-935554-05-X. This volume (in English) provides a detailed description of all the types of 8 mm Lebel ammunition, including the Balle D (a.m.). The 7 X 59 mm Meunier cartridge ( for the semi-automatic A6 Meunier rifle ) is also illustrated and described in detail.
  4. "Standard Catalog of Military Firearms", Ned Schwing, 2003, Krause Publications, ISBN 0-87349-525-X. Contains an informative and detailed page dedicated to the Lebel rifle (by David Fortier).
  5. "The Chauchat Machine Rifle (Honour Bound) , Gerard Demaison and Yves Buffetaut, 1995, Collector Grade Publications, ISBN 0-88935-190-2, The 10 pages illustrated appendix at the end of this volume ( in English) exhaustively describes all the 8 mm Lebel ball ammunition types, plus the less well-known blank, tracer, armor-piercing, incendiary, dummy and proof rounds. This appendix was documented and authored by internationally known cartridge expert Dr Ph. Regenstreif.
  6. Bolt Action Rifles, Frank de Haas and Wayne Van Zwoll, 2003, Krause Publications, ISBN 0-87349-660-4. An illustrated chapter in this volume reviews in depth the Lebel and Berthier rifles (and carbines).

    References

    External links

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