Six years into the ban, AUG buyers gained a reprieve as cosmetic changes to the carbine's design allowed importation once again.

Changes included redesigning its pistol grip into a thumbhole stock, and leaving its barrel unthreaded to prevent attachment of a flash hider or suppressor.

The Federal Assault Weapons Ban, passed in 1994, further prohibited the manufacture of additional Steyr AUGs or their copies.

[9] The AUG employs a very high level of advanced firearms technology and is made with the extensive use of polymers and aluminium components.

The AUG comes with a muzzle cap, spare bolt for left-handed shooters, blank-firing adaptor, cleaning kit, sling and either an American M7 or German KCB-77 M1 bayonet.

The bolt also contains a claw extractor that forms the eighth locking lug and a spring-loaded "bump"-type casing ejector.

The left-hand rod provides retracting handle pressure when connected by the forward assist and can also be utilised as a reamer to remove fouling in the gas cylinder.

The AUG is hammer-fired and the firing mechanism is contained in the rear of the stock, near the butt, covered by a synthetic rubber shoulder plate.

The quick-change barrel used in the AUG is cold hammer-forged for increased precision and durability, its bore, chamber and certain components of the gas system are chrome-plated (currently nitride on US market rifles).

[9] The trigger is hung permanently on the pistol grip, together with its two operating rods which run in guides past the magazine housing.

The rear of the stock forms the actual shoulder rest which contains the hammer unit and the end of the bolt path.

The sight is also equipped with a set of three illuminated dots (one on the front blade and two at the rear) for use in low-level lighting conditions.

In order to mount a wide range of optics and accessories, a receiver with a NATO-standard Picatinny rail and detachable carrying handle was also developed and introduced in December 1997.

[9] Modern AUGs are equipped with, or can have the Picatinny rail swapped out with, an A3SF 60mm height x3 optic with optional riser and additional crosshair within the "donut" black ring.

[13] While the AUG is not fully ambidextrous, it can be configured to be used by left- or right-handed operators by changing the bolt to one that has the extractor and ejector on the appropriate side and moving the blanking plate to cover the ejection port not in use.

[11] It can also be converted into an open-bolt full-auto-only mode of fire, which allows for improved cooling and eliminates cook off problems when the AUG is used as a light machine gun.

Steyr also offers 508 mm (20 in) barrel configurations fitted with a fixed, post front-sight used on the rifle version with aperture iron sights.

[9] A 621 mm (24.4 in) heavy barrel with an integrated lightweight folding bipod with a closed-type ported muzzle device (combination of flash suppressor and compensator) is also available, primarily used on the AUG HBAR.

It features a heavier and longer 621 mm (24.4 in) barrel with an integrated bipod, and the standard AUG receiver with 1.5× magnification scope.

[1] It differs from the rifle variants by having a unique 420 mm (16.5 in) barrel with six right-hand grooves at a 250 mm (1:9.8 in) rifling twist rate, with a recoil compensator, a slightly different charging handle, and a magazine well adapter enabling the use of Steyr MPi 69 25- and 32-round box magazines.

[37] In 1985, the ADF ordered 67,000 F88 Austeyrs that were manufactured by Australian Defence Industries (now Thales Australia) at their Lithgow Small Arms Factory under licence from Steyr Mannlicher AG.

[51] The Advanced Individual Combat Weapon (AICW) developed by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Tenix Defence Systems, ADI, NICO and Metal Storm was an experimental F88 Austeyr that incorporated a top barrel for Metal Storm 30 mm rounds.

[60][61][62] The EF88 (Enhanced F88) was developed by Thales Australia for the Australian Defence Force under Project LAND 125 Phase 3C to replace the F88 Austeyr.

[64] In September 2014, Thales Australia was awarded a low rate initial production contract after achieving provisional design acceptance.

[69] In June 2015, EF88s from the low rate initial production were issued to the Army infantry battalion 1 RAR to trial before the anticipated rollout of the EF88 in 2016.

[65] Within the Australian Defence Force, there has been some discussion about the suitability of the EF88 when compared against variants of the AR-15 platform such as the M4 carbine and SIG MCX.

[85] In November 2021, Defence Technology Review reported that Thales Australia, in collaboration with the Australian Army, were developing a next-generation individual weapon in bullpup configuration chambered for the 6.8 mm calibre.

[92] In April 2019, the F90CQB variant was planned to be submitted in conjunction with the Kalyani Group for Indian Army requirements on a 5.56 mm NATO carbine.

The result was the Steyr AUG Mod 14, and on the same year the army began issuing the rifle to its operational units.

[103][104] The variants of the New Zealand IW Steyr were equipped with a progressive trigger (without full-auto lock-out tab as seen on F88 models) and a three-position safety.