Manufacture Nationale d'Armes de Tulle MAT-49

The MAT-49 was a submachine gun which was developed by gun designer Pierre Monteil in the French arms factory Manufacture Nationale d'Armes de Tulle (MAT) for use by the French Army and was first produced in 1949. The MAT-49 used a machine stamping process which allowed the economical production of large numbers of submachine guns, then urgently required by the French Government for use by Army, French Foreign Legion as well as airborne and colonial forces. Production continued at Tulle up to 1979. In that same year, the French armed forces adopted the FAMAS 5.56 mm NATO assault rifle, and the MAT-49 was gradually phased out of service. The MAT-49 saw widespread combat use during the First Indochina War and the Algerian War, as well as the 1956 Suez Crisis, 1958 Lebanon Crisis, Vietnam War, Laotian Civil War, Cambodian Civil War, Portuguese Colonial War, Rhodesian Bush War, Shaba II, Chadian–Libyan conflict, Lebanese Civil War, Libyan Civil War and Syrian Civil War. The MAT-49 is blowback-operated and box magazine-fed, with a rate of fire of 600 rounds per minute on full auto. The MAT-49 had a short, retractable wire stock, which when extended gave the weapon a length of 720 mm (28 in), and the magazine well and magazine could be folded forward parallel to the barrel for a parachute jump or with a 45° angle hence allowing a safe carry until the magazine well is brought back to the vertical position before opening fire.