The KH-2002 ''Khaybar'' ( fa, خیبر ) is an

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian-designed assault rifle, derived from the DIO S 5.56 assault rifle (an unlicensed clone of the Chinese Norinco CQ, which in turn is an unlicensed copy of the American

M16 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 ...

) and further developed by Iran's Defense Industries Organization (DIO). It was designed in 2001 with samples produced in 2003 with the eventual production of the KH2002 commencing in 2004. It is similar in appearance to the

FAMAS The FAMAS (''Fusil d'Assaut de la Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne'', "Assault Rifle from the Saint-Étienne Weapon Factory") is a bullpup assault rifle designed and manufactured in France by MAS in 1978, a year after the Austrian Ste ...

. Its improved version, released in 2009, was known as "Sama" ( fa, سما).

History

In the early 2000s, Iran was testing prototypes of G3 battle rifles made under license for the Iranian military in bullpup configurations to test their feasibility. This was later dropped in favor of a similar weapon that's chambered in 5.56 NATO. According to a Global Security Studies report, it was observed that Venezuela received 18,000 KH-2002s sold to them by Iran in 2007. In the same year, an investigation was carried out in Uruguay in an attempt to bring KH-2002s into the country through Venezuela, which was a violation of UN embargo rules against Iran, according to reports in the Washington Times. According to the article, all 18,000 rifles and 15,000 rounds of Iranian-made 5.56mm NATO ammunition were confiscated. In 2008, Iran had sent ten samples of the KH-2002 to Syria in order to compete for a potential contract with the Syrian Army against the

AK-74 The AK-74 ( Russian: , tr. ''Avtomat Kalashnikova obraztsa 1974 goda'', lit. 'Kalashnikov assault rifle model 1974) is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974. While primarily associated with the Soviet ...

M. Eight KH-2002s used in field tests jammed numerous times, leaving two of them in working condition. It has been suggested that production of the KH-2002 was discontinued in 2012 after DIO was unable to find customers willing to buy the assault rifle.

Design

The KH-2002 features a four-position fire selector lever which is situated toward the rear of the left side butt-stock behind magazine housing with the M16-type magazine release button on the right side of the magazine housing.The World's Assault Rifles by Johnson and Nelson, Page 714. The weapon is not entirely ambidextrous since the ejection port is located on the right side of the rifle. It uses the globally proliferate STANAG magazine and is typically fitted with 20- or 30-round magazines. The selector offers semi-automatic, fully automatic and three-round burst options, with the safety selection in the forward position.The World's Assault Rifles by Johnson and Nelson, Page 1291. It operates as a gas operated, rotating bolt-type rifle. The KH-2002 can be outfitted with an AK-type bayonet. The DIO promotes the KH-2002 as a "low-recoil, highly accurate, lightweight" weapon, with "modular construction for easy maintenance" and a rotating bolt locking mechanism, presumably designed to facilitate ambidextrous firing, protected under a carrying handle that contains the rear sight. The carrying handle can also be used to mount optical or night sights. The weight of the KH-2002 with the long barrel and an empty 30-round magazine is given as 3.7 kg. The weapon can also be fitted with an optional bipod and a bayonet. Field stripping the rifle is most likely based on the M16. The Sama-type rifle has improvements made over initial production models such as having a longer carry handle to accommodate longer optics or scopes when it was released in 2009. Other improvements include a foregrip extension below the barrel to better handle the rifle, two picatinny rails on the receiver were included and the bolt carrier design changed to fit the ejection port. According to an October 2013 report by SIPRI, it's suggested that China may have provided technical assistance to Iranian engineers in designing the rifle.

Variants

The variants consisted of the following: * Assault Rifle: Standard barrel based on the M16A1. * Carbine: Has a short barrel and no front sight. * DMR: Has a longer barrel.

Users

Current operators

*: Used in limited numbers.

Failed contracts

* : DIO competed with the KH-2002 against the AK-74M, which failed due to numerous jamming incidents. * : A smuggling attempt was made by

CAVIM , type = State-owned company , location = , industry = defense , founded = , founder = , hq_location_city = Caracas, Capital District , hq_location_country = Venezuela , num_locations = , num_locations_year = , area_served ...

and MODLEX (Ministry of Defence & Armed Forces Logistics of the Islamic Republic of Iran) officials in a bid to supply the Uruguayan military with new assault rifles to secure a potential contract, which failed.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Khaybar Kh2002 5.56 mm assault rifles Post–Cold War weapons of Iran Bullpup rifles Weapons and ammunition introduced in 2003 ArmaLite AR-10 derivatives Assault rifles of Iran