Preview – Historic Rifle Roots

Images reprinted from the Herstal Group’s ARS Mechanica with permission.
All other photography by Jorge Nuñez
and ©2013 Brian Dressler / DresslerPhoto.com

With Its Past Intertwined with Belgium, Browning, and the Battle of the Bulge, FNH USA Proudly Carries on Its Storied Firearms Heritage

We’ve all seen the news photos or videos of our courageous troops wielding M4s and M249s in the “Sandbox” or other dangerous places throughout the world. What you won’t see is FNH USA’s roll-stamp on those guns. But the fact is that, if an American service member is holding a firearm, it’s more likely than not to have been made by FNH USA. The U.S. military has been using the company’s small arms in pretty much every conflict and in every major region around the globe for the past four decades. FNH USA supplies a huge majority of the small arms carried by the U.S. Armed Forces and has done so with pride since the ’70s.

“It’s one of FNH USA’s crowning achievements to know we make products that give our soldiers and civilians a distinct advantage. That advantage is in performance, reliability, and durability,” says Ken Pfau, senior vice president of FNH USA’s commercial operations. “It’s very humbling to have a warfighter come back from service, look someone up at a trade show, and thank them for making a product that made a difference when they needed it the most.”

As a subsidiary of the world-renowned Belgian firearms-maker FN Herstal, FNH USA handles all marketing, commercial sales, and government relations in the United States out of its McLean, Virginia, headquarters. It develops and produces — with the help of its South Carolina-based sister company, FN Manufacturing — various families of military weapons: the M4A1, M16, MK 46, MK 48, M240, and M249. And let’s not forget that elite operators in U.S. special-operation units use the FN SCAR platform, designated the MK 16 and MK 17.

But the U.S. military isn’t FNH USA’s only customer. Law enforcement agencies throughout the nation have adopted various FN handguns, precision rifles, and carbines. It’s no surprise then that much of the free world wants in on the action, too. Security agencies in 50 other countries have also adopted FN weapons and products, according to Benjamin Voss, an FNH USA product manager. He understands why, having used the company’s products as a U.S. Marine for 11 years before he joined the company.

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