The AR-57, also known as the AR Five Seven, is available as either an upper receiver for the
AR-15
An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporatio ...
/
M16 rifle
The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-roun ...
or a complete rifle, firing
5.7×28mm rounds from standard
FN P90
The FN P90 is a compact 5.7×28mm personal defense weapon designed and manufactured by FN Herstal in Belgium. It can also be considered a submachine gun. Created in response to NATO requests for a replacement for 9×19mm Parabellum firearms, t ...
magazines. It was designed by AR57 LLC was produced by AR57 of
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces the ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, United States. The company is now defunct. The AR-57
PDW upper is a new design on AR-15/M16 rifles, blending the AR-15/M16 lower with a lightweight, monolithic upper receiver system chambered in FN 5.7×28mm. This model is also sold as a complete rifle, supplied with two 50-round P90 magazines.
The magazines mount horizontally on top of the front handguard, with brass ejecting through the magazine well. Hollow
AR-15 magazines can be used to catch spent casings.
Unlike the standard AR-15 configuration which uses a gas-tube system , the AR-57 cycles via
straight blowback. A full auto version exists and was marketed as a competitor to the P90 and other
personal defense weapon
Personal defense weapons (PDWs) are a class of firearms intended for self-defense and security rather than warfare and infantry. Most PDWs fire a small-caliber (less than ), centerfire bottleneck cartridge resembling a scaled-down intermediate ...
s.
History
Venezuelan soldiers who defected to
Juan Guaidó
Juan Gerardo Guaidó Márquez (born 28 July 1983) is a Venezuelan politician, a former member of the Social democracy, social-democratic Popular Will party, and federal deputy to the National Assembly (Venezuela), National Assembly representing ...
was photographed using an AR-57 during the
Venezuelan crisis in 2019.
User
*
[https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2019/05/09/potd-a-venezuelan-ar-57-appears/]
See also
*
AR-15 variants
This article describes the many variations of the Colt AR-15 and M16 rifle family of weapons produced by Colt's Manufacturing Company. Weapons patterned on the original ArmaLite AR-15 design have been produced by numerous manufacturers and h ...
References
External links
Official website
5.7×28mm firearms
Semi-automatic rifles
ArmaLite AR-10 derivatives
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