Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne

Saint-Étienne was well-known as a center of sword and knife manufacturing beginning in the Middle Ages.

In 1665, a Royal Arms Depot was created in Paris to store military weapons made in Saint-Étienne.

Subsequently, the French Empire required a threefold increase in production to meet the needs of the Grande Armée in its conquest of Europe.

OPTSYS, a Nexter subsidiary specializing in optical equipment and protected vision for armored vehicles, is currently located in Saint-Étienne.

This typically meant old models had their ignition system modernised from flintlock to percussion cap, or had a smoothbore barrel re-bored with rifling.