Editing FN FAL (section)

=== Rhodesia ===
Like most British dependencies in the postwar era, [[Southern Rhodesia]] adopted the Commonwealth pattern [[L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle|L1A1 SLR]] by the early 1960s.{{sfn|Cashner|2013|p=15}} Southern Rhodesia contributed small military contingents to aid British counter-insurgency operations during the [[Malayan Emergency]] and the [[Aden Emergency]], and adopted the L1A1 as its standard infantry rifle around that time.<ref name="COIN">{{cite book|title=Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare|last=Wood|first=JRT|date=2008|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1-84603-281-3|editor1-last=Malkasian|editor1-first=Carter|location=Oxford|pages=[https://archive.org/details/counterinsurgenc00dani/page/189 189–342]|editor2-last=Marston|editor2-first=Daniel|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/counterinsurgenc00dani/page/189}}</ref> As a result of its participation in those conflicts, the [[Rhodesian Security Forces]] inherited the British emphasis on long-range marksmanship and the use of riflemen in small units as the primary cornerstone of major counter-insurgency campaigns.{{sfn|Cashner|2013|p=35}} The standard small unit of the security forces, which included the Southern Rhodesian Army as well as various paramilitary police and internal security  divisions, was the stick; this consisted of four riflemen, each armed with SLRs, and a machine gunner carrying an [[FN MAG]].{{sfn|Cashner|2013|p=42}} The United Kingdom continued to export L1A1s to Southern Rhodesia until that country issued a [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence|unilateral declaration of independence]] as [[Rhodesia]] in 1965.{{sfn|Cashner|2013|p=15}} Rhodesia subsequently became subject to a British arms embargo and the SLRs were largely relegated to reserve army and police units.<ref name="Fireforce">{{cite book |last=Chris Cocks|title=Fireforce: One Man's War in the Rhodesian Light Infantry|edition=July 1, 2001|pages=139–141 |publisher=Covos Day|isbn= 1-919874-32-1|date=2002-04-03}}</ref>

During the [[Rhodesian Bush War]], the Rhodesian Security Forces turned to a sympathetic [[South Africa]] as a major supplier of arms. South Africa already manufactured a metric-pattern FAL under licence as the R1, and transferred a number of these rifles to Rhodesia.{{sfn|Cashner|2013|p=43}} Rhodesia also acquired FAL variants illicitly on the international black market, including original FN rifles from Belgium<ref name="Impasse">{{cite book|title=A matter of weeks rather than months: The Impasse between Harold Wilson and Ian Smith: Sanctions, Aborted Settlements and War 1965–1969|last=Wood|first=J R T|date=April 2008|location=Victoria, British Columbia|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=978-1-4251-4807-2|page=191}}</ref> and G1s from West Germany.{{sfn|Cashner|2013|p=43}} Many of the FAL derivatives in Rhodesian service were fitted with custom muzzle brakes to reduce recoil on fully automatic fire.<ref name="Fireforce" />

The heavy Rhodesian emphasis on individual marksmanship and the ballistic qualities of the 7.62×51mm round often allowed outnumbered Rhodesian patrols to fight their way through larger groups of insurgents from the [[Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army]] (ZANLA) or [[Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army]] (ZIPRA), both of which were equipped primarily with Kalashnikov-pattern automatic rifles such as the [[AK-47]] and [[AKM]].{{sfn|Cashner|2013|p=46}} Rhodesian troops were trained to fire directly into the insurgents' cover whenever an ambush was encountered, shooting their FALs in bursts that were deliberately aimed low and graduating their fire upwards.{{sfn|Cashner|2013|p=46}} Their 7.62×51mm ammunition could penetrate thick bush and tree trunks more readily than the [[7.62×39mm]] cartridge used in the AK-47, and was more successful at killing the enemy combatants in cover.{{sfn|Cashner|2013|p=46}}

Following [[1980 Southern Rhodesian general election|general elections in 1980]] which brought the former insurgent leadership to power, the country finally achieved internationally recognised independence as [[Zimbabwe]], and the Rhodesian Security Forces were amalgamated with ZANLA and ZIPRA.<ref name="zimstudy">{{citation |last=Nelson |first=Harold |title=Zimbabwe: a country study |publisher=The American University (Washington, D.C.) |year=1983 |isbn=0-16-001598-7}}</ref> As the Zimbabwean government had inherited vast stockpiles of 7.62×51mm ammunition from the Rhodesian era, it initially ordered the insurgents' small arms to be placed into reserve storage and confirmed the FAL as the standard service rifle of the new [[Zimbabwe Defence Forces]] (ZDF).<ref name="zimstudy" /> However, a successful sabotage action carried out against the preexisting stockpiles of 7.62×51mm ammunition, possibly by disgruntled Rhodesian service members or South African special forces, negated this factor.<ref name="zimstudy" /> The ZDF responded by bringing the insurgent weapons out of storage to complement the FAL, and gradually phased out the weapon type in favour of Kalashnikov rifles to simplify maintenance and logistics.<ref name="zimstudy" />