Drake 472

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Drake 472

The Drake 472 is an assault rifle in bullpup configuration designed and manufactured in Dregruk by the Mercer arms factory, which is a member of the Dregruk government-owned Mercer Trading Company complex. It is the service rifle of the Dregruk military.

Development and Production

Development began in 1967 under the direction of Paul Drake and the first Drake prototype was completed in 1991. Dregruk military evaluation of the rifle began in 1992. The Dregruk military finally accepted the rifle in 1999 as the standard Dregruk combat weapon. After adoption, the Drake (designated G.472) effectively replaced the aging FIAR. Production of the rifle was set into full swing soon afterwards. Approximately 4 million Drake G.472 assault rifles were produced after which Mercer Industries replaced the Drake G.472 with the G.472-b. The b-model included several minor improvements such as redesigned grips and an enlarged trigger guard. The original model proved to be an intermediate design, however, as it was soon replaced by the G.472-c. The c-model appeared in 2004, and was purchased and adopted by the Dregurk Navy in 2005. As of late 2006 however, the Dregruk Army has stuck with the original, not planning to switch to the b-model and waiting for the next version.

Design

The Drake is of bullpup configuration and allows for ambidextrous usage. The ammunition is stored in a magazine behind the trigger and the receiver is housed in strong plastic. The rifle uses Lever-Delayed Blowback action, a system developed by Hungarian designer Pál Király. Fire rate is controlled by the selector just behind the magazine well. The selector has three settings: safe, single shot, and fully automatic fire. Another selector allowing for a three-shot burst of fire (rafale) is located under the housing and behind the magazine.

The 472-a and -b, the original variants, weigh 4.2 kilograms and were designed to use 25-round magazines with the 5.56 x 45 mm NATO cartridge. These magazines were incompatible with standard NATO weaponry, but the 472-c uses the STANAG magazine as used by most other NATO rifles, including the M16 and SA80. The 472-c weighs 3.8 kilograms. The c-model has a full length handguard to allow easy use with gloves.

Another notable feature of the Drake is the interesting inclusion in all models of the rifle of an attached bipod located on the upper body of the rifle, significantly improving the accuracy and target acquisition of the operator over other, similar, rifles unequipped with this feature.

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