The karabinek szturmowy wzór 96 "Beryl" (English: ''assault rifle pattern 1996 "Beryllium"'', abbreviated kbs wz. 96) is a Polish 5.56mm

assault rifle An assault rifle is a select fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge, intermediate-rifle cartridge and a Magazine (firearms), detachable magazine.C. Taylor, ''The Fighting Rifle: A Complete Study of the Rifle in Combat'', F.A. Moyer '' ...

, designed and produced by the Fabryka Broni Radom. The rifle replaced the 5.45×39mm FB Tantal and 7.62×39mm AKM rifles as the standard-issue service rifle of the Polish Armed Forces.

Development

Development work on a new service rifle (both a standard and

carbine A carbine ( or ) is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges. The smaller size and ligh ...

variant) adapted to use the intermediate 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge had been undertaken in 1995, however a functioning 5.56 mm rifle and carbine variant had already been available in Radom since 1991, known as the wz. 1991 (a rechambered wz. 88 Tantal rifle). The new weapon's specifications were approved in February 1995 and in December the same year, a prototype production batch consisting of 11 Beryl rifles was produced. In 1997 the weapon had been successfully evaluated and adopted into service as the ''5,56 mm karabinek szturmowy wz. 1996'' ("assault carbine pattern 1996"). The Beryl subsequently became the standard Polish rifle. In 2011, there were more than 45,000 in the inventory, accounting for about half of the assault rifles in the Polish Army. On May 25, 2016, FB "Łucznik" Radom announced an order from the Polish Army for 26,000 Beryls and Mini-Beryls, though did not break it down by system. Apart from Poland, 80 wz. 96A Beryls and 10 wz. 96A Mini Beryls are used by Lithuania (donated in May 2000 by Poland, including 10 rifles with Pallad grenade launcher and 10 rifles with CWL-1 scope with integrated laser rangefinder). Until 2002/2003 they were equipment of a special forces unit SOJ Aitvaras, operating in Afghanistan.

Design

The Beryl's design layout and system of operation are similar to those of the Tantal rifle, and the principal differences, resulting primarily from using a different cartridge, include the following components: the barrel, receiver housing, buttstock, foregrip, muzzle device, sight system and magazine. With an adapter, it can use the M-16 NATO standard magazine. The 457 mm-long barrel, has six right-hand grooves and a 228 mm (1:9 in) twist rate. The barrel's external profile (from the breech to the front sight base) is identical to the Tantal's barrel, but the length from the foresight base has a visible tapered contour with a decreasing diameter towards the muzzle end, used to mount a

flash suppressor A flash suppressor, also known as a flash guard, flash eliminator, flash hider, or flash cone, is a device attached to the muzzle (firearms), muzzle of a rifle that reduces its Muzzle flash, visible signature while firing by cooling or dispersin ...

. The flash hider can be used to mount and launch rifle grenades. The flash hider has a slight taper at the front that supports a bayonet and a little further to the rear – six side ports arranged in pairs. These ports are placed asymmetrically around the circumference of the flash hider and stabilize the weapon during continuous fire. Internally the flash suppressor features threading at the muzzle used to screw-in a blank firing attachment. Located mid-length on the flash hider is a cut-out with a ring retainer spring that secures a rifle grenade to the barrel. The receiver housing contains several modifications over the receiver of the wz. 1988 rifle. It uses a reinforced rear stock trunnion, adapted for the new shoulder stock and a top-mounted

Picatinny rail The 1913 rail (MIL-STD-1913 rail) is an American rail integration system designed by Richard Swan that provides a mounting platform for firearm accessories. It forms part of the NATO standard STANAG 2324 rail. It was originally used for mount ...

for mounting optical sights. DA-SD-07-21159

The side-folding tubular metal

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

is coated with a thermal polymer shrink film. It has a metal shoulder stop covered with a rubber recoil pad. More recent models come with a collapsible stock (see picture of wz. 2004 model on right side of page). The standard lower handguard features an angled rib pattern designed to enhance gripping by the support hand. The rear of the handguard features two molded notches that enable the 40 mm wz. 1974

grenade launcher A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially designed, large caliber projectile, often with an explosive, Smoke screen, smoke, or tear gas, gas warhead. Today, the term generally refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary gre ...

to be mounted under the barrel (early versions of the wz. 1996 lacked these notches, fitted instead with handguards with lateral grooves). Some Beryl handguards are equipped with short Picatinny rails and an integral vertical foregrip. The Beryl's sighting system is very similar to the setup used on the Tantal, it does however differ with the addition of twin cuts made into the sides of rear sight base that are used to fasten a bracket for mounting the following optical sights: the passive PCS-6 night sight, a CK-3 reflex optical collimator ( red dot sight), LKA-4 telescopic sight and CWL-1 scope with integrated laser rangefinder. However, the most used additional sight for Beryl is EOTech 552

holographic weapon sight A holographic weapon sight or holographic diffraction sight is a non-magnification, magnifying gunsight that allows the user to look through a glass optical window and see a holographic reticle image superimposed at a distance on the field of view. ...

and PCS-5M passive night sight. PCS-6 and CWL-1 are introduced in small number. The weapon's unique magazine is molded from plastic and is not interchangeable with magazines from the kbk wz. 1988 Tantal. The Beryl has a long, trapezoid-shaped safety switch, similar to those found on the

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

or almost all of the AK series, but unlike the archetype, it does not act as a fire selector (its function is performed by a separate switch on the other side of the receiver). The Beryl fires 5.56×45mm ammunition with a steel-core standard round, a tracer cartridge and a training slug, which are produced by Zakłady Metalowe Mesko in the town of

Skarżysko-Kamienna Skarżysko-Kamienna () is a city in northern Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship in south-central Poland by Kamienna (river), Kamienna river, to the north of Świętokrzyskie Mountains; one of the voivodship's major cities. Prior to 1928, it bore the name ...

. Standard equipment shipped with the rifle includes: three spare magazines, four 15-round stripper clips, a stripper clip guide,

bayonet A bayonet (from Old French , now spelt ) is a -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , now spelt ) is a knife, dagger">knife">-4; we might wonder whethe ...

, cleaning kit, lubricant bottle, cleaning rod (two-piece, stored in the cleaning kit pouch), sling, a magazine pouch and

bipod A bipod is a V-shaped portable attachment that helps support and steady a device, usually a weapon such as a long gun or a mortar. The term comes from the Latin prefix and Greek root , meaning "two" and "foot" respectively. Bipods are design ...

. The rifle can also be fitted with a mounting system for optical sights and a blank-firing adaptor. The Beryl was used to create a

variant known as the

Mini-Beryl The FB Mini-Beryl is a Polish compact assault rifle (carbine) derived from the FB Beryl service rifle and chambered for 5.56×45mm. It was developed in parallel with the wz. 96 Beryl by the FB "Łucznik" Radom, Fabryka Broni in Radom and int ...

Variants

* kbs wz. 96A Beryl (1996): standard version of Beryl, the most produced version for Polish Forces, some examples were equipped with POPC I rail, where Polish sights (CWL-1, CK-3, LKA-4, PCS-6) could be mounted, but most mounted rail is POPC III. In Iraq, some Beryls were modified in the field and received wooden foregrip from PM md. 63 * kbs wz. 96B Beryl (2004): same as standard version, but with fixed foregrip and rails on it. Also, "B" version gets new rail, POPC II (short) and POPC III (long) which subtended the Picatinny standard (however, some "B" Beryls get POPC I rail). * kbs wz. 96C Beryl (2009): version with new buttstock (which is fixed and telescopic), new rails (POPC IV), new handguard, magazines and new foregrip. * kbs wz. 96D Beryl: an option available by the manufacturer, which allows to freely complete the rifle from elements of versions A, B and C *Beryl M545 (2011): proposed 5.45×39mm export variantWilk, Remigiusz: ''Broń strzelecka w Kielcach'', "RAPORT Wojsko Technika Obronność" Nr. 11/2013, p. 37 (in Polish) *Beryl M762 (2013): "C" export variant chambered to fire 7.62×39mm ammunition. Bought by Nigeria.

Users

* : 90 units of which 80 are wz. 96A in use by special forces and recon units (10 with wz. 74 Pallad grenade launcher and 10 with CWL-1 telescopic sight with laser pointer) and 10 are wz. 96 Mini-Beryl variant. Until 2003 used by SOJ Aitvaras elite special forces unit in Afghanistan. * : 3,200 M762 rifles (in March 2018, the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria signed a letter of intent to manufacture the rifles in Nigeria) * : Current standard-issue rifle of the

Polish Land Forces The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history str ...

, with around 86,000 units in service.

References

External links