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CAR 816
Assault rifle From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The CAR 816, also called Caracal Sultan or simply Sultan, is a 5.56×45mm NATO, gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle that is produced by Caracal International in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
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History
The Caracal CAR 816 shares lineage to the Heckler & Koch HK416. The principal firearms engineers for the CAR 816 were Robert Hirt and Chris Sirois.
Hirt was instrumental in the development of the HK416. Following his time with Heckler & Koch, Hirt was recruited by SIG Sauer to work with then SIG engineer Chris Sirois on an improved version of the HK416: the SIG Sauer SIG516 (they later designed the SIG716 and SIG MCX/SIG MPX).
Hirt and Sirois were later recruited by Caracal to develop a new rifle iteration that was superior to both the HK416 and SIG516 series. From this, the CAR 816 series was created.[2][3][4][5]
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Design
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The CAR 816 is based on the AR-15 platform ergonomic architecture, but uses a short-stroke gas piston operating system (unlike the AR-15's piston-operated gas impingement system) with a user-adjustable gas system.
Feeding
The CAR 816 features a Draft STANAG 4179 compliant magazine well and is fed with STANAG magazines with a standard capacity of 30 rounds.
Other STANAG compatible box and drum magazines can be used.[1]
Operation
The CAR 816 uses a proprietary bolt carrier and a special tungsten granules containing buffer to manage bolt carrier bounce and soften recoil.
The CAR 816's chamber is modified, so the rifle is over-the-beach capable to let the rifle fire safely as quickly as possible after being submerged in water.[6]
With the help of the three position regulator (normal, adverse conditions and suppressor/silencer settings), the gas system can be adjusted to function reliably with various propellant, projectile, fouling, operating environment and configuration specific pressure behavior.
The CAR 816 uses a mil-spec direct trigger.[1] The selector settings are: safe, semi-automatic fire and automatic fire.[1]
Ergonomics
The CAR 816 handguard features four Picatinny rails, allowing direct accessory attachment onto the mounting points, and can be removed without tools.[1]
The CAR 816 basic version features rail mounted flip up rear and front iron sights. The integrated rail on the upper receiver and its continuation on the handguard at the 12 o'clock position allows for the adaptation of various aiming optics.[1]
The shoulder stock is a telescoping 6 position type stock which is adjustable for length of pull.
Interoperability with M4
The CAR 816 shares most components with the M4 arms family, with a few exceptions.
The M4 carbine profile hammer forged chrome lined barrel has a 178 mm (7.0 in) twist rate and features a standard A2-style flash suppressor at its muzzle end. All lower receiver components are interchangeable with the M4 arms family.
The amount of movement between the upper and lower receiver is minimized by a tension tube.[5]
Due to their complete manufacture in the United Arab Emirates, the arms are not subject to United States’ imposed International Traffic in Arms Regulations, whilst sharing most components with the M4 arms family extensively used by the US Armed Forces.
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Variants
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The weapon is available in semi-automatic and select-fire configurations with four barrel lengths and differing manufacturer stated effective ranges:[7]
CAR816 personal defence weapon
PDW variant with a 191 mm (7.5 in) barrel; effective range 200 m (219 yd)
CAR816 compact
Compact variant with a 267 mm (10.5 in) barrel; effective range 300 m (328 yd)
CAR816 carbine
Carbine variant with a 368 mm (14.5 in) barrel; effective range 480 m (525 yd)
CAR816 assault rifle
Assault rifle variant with a 406 mm (16.0 in) barrel; effective range 550 m (601 yd).[8][1]
The rifles supplied to the UAE armed forces bears an engraving honoring Colonel Sultan Mohammed Ali al-Kitbi[9] who was killed in action in Saudi-led intervention in Yemen.[9]
CAR816 A2
The Caracal CAR816 A2 is a semi-automatic only export version produced in the United States by Caracal USA.
It is built to exceed the NATO test protocols; “Bore Obstruction” and “Over the Beach” testing.
It features some minor alterations (M-LOK rails at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock on the handguard and a button cut and QPQ treated steel modified M4 contour barrel) to better meet civilian market preferences in the United States.[10][11][12]
Foreign variants
The CAR 816 is joint-produced in Indonesia with PT Pindad as the PC 816 V1 (Pindad Caracal 816 Version 1)[14][15][16][13].
On February 18, 2025, at NAVDEX 2025 in Abu Dhabi, the UAE's EDGE Group and CARACAL, its small arms subsidiary, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia's Ketech Asia for local assembly and production of the CAR 816 assault rifle.[17][18][19]
The CAR 816 was considered by Dasan Machineries as a candidate to replace the Daewoo Precision Industries K1 used by the Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command.[20] Instead, they submitted the DSAR-15PC as a domestic design became a tender requirement.[21][22]
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India
- 93,895 carbines ordered in September 2018.
- The order was cancelled in September 2020 in favour of domestically developed carbines under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.[32] Later that month Caracal offered to manufacture the weapons in India.[33][34]
- In 2022, Caracal responded to a tender for procurement of 4.25 lakh carbines for Indian Armed Forces.[35][36]
- 93,895 carbines ordered in September 2018.
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See also
References
External links
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