Service rifle

The term can also be used to describe weapons issued by non-military forces, such as law enforcement or paramilitaries.

If the issued weapon is not a rifle or carbine, but instead a different type of firearm intended to serve in a specialized role such as a combat shotgun, submachine gun, or light machine gun, it is called a service firearm or service weapon.

Thus, rifles in the early 19th century were for specialist marksmen only, whilst ordinary infantry were issued less accurate smoothbore muskets which had a higher rate of fire, with bore diameters as high as 19 mm (0.75 inch).

[1][2] However, it was during the war that Germany also produced the StG 44, which is capable of controllable fully automatic fire from a 30-round magazine with the newly developed 7.92x33mm Kurz intermediate rifle cartridge.

After the war, the StG 44 was of particular interest to the Soviet Union, whose AK-47 was derived heavily from the German design.

An Uzi submachine gun , FN FAL battle rifle , and FN Minimi light machine gun —common service weapons in the Western world during the mid-to-late 20th century—displayed at the Curtius Museum in Liège , Belgium
A Canadian Army soldier with his Colt Canada C7A2 service rifle