THE RIFLE IN THE HIGH CASTLE

The year is 1951. The jubilation of worldwide Allied victories is fading with the ominous realization that global totalitarianism hasn’t died, but merely shifted shape. The dread of the thousand-year Reich is replaced by the ever-extending tentacles of a global Soviet. If Nazism was the plague of the free world, Communism would prove to be its cancer. But large-scale clashes of armies, like those seen a decade prior, are no longer. Instead, a new model of warfare emerged, with large groups of powerful nations collecting up smaller, less sophisticated lands like so much loose change on the world floor. Admirals and generals accustomed to laying down force like brick-and-mortar are now reduced to playing checkers with peasant guerrillas and insurgent commandos who don’t even speak their language. The beginning of MOOTW: Military Operations Other Than War.

It’s against this backdrop that legendary arms producer Fabrique National releases their FAL — Fusil Automatique Léger, or Light Automatic Rifle. Though originally produced for the intermediate 7mm NATO cartridge, more commonly known as .280 British, it was eventually adopted in the larger 7.62mm NATO by over 90 countries worldwide. As the FAL saw steady use by Allied forces around the world during various Cold War hot spots, it became known