HA972 Assault Rifle

The HA972, formally Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, HA972 is a selective fire 5.56x45mm NATO bullpup assault rifle, designed by Harold Albertson of TerraTek Design Labs. It is the primary assault rifle of the Confederacy, and is utilized across the whole of the Confederate armed forces.

History
The HA972 was developed in response to the ongoing Confederate Future Weapons competition in 2005. The competition required a service rifle that was capable of synching to modern infantry computerization technologies, and could still stand up to the rigors of combat and hostile environments. The HA972 assault rifle proved to be an exceptional design, performing above all expectations in several durability trials, including being buried in sand, mud, and dirt, being dropped 3 stories onto concrete, and being run over by a convoy of semi-trailer trucks.

In 2007, the HA972 was officially adopted as the standard assault rifle of the Confederate armed forces.

Design
The HA972 is a gas-operated, selective-fire assault rifle chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO. The frame, barrel, bolt, and bolt carrier are machined stainless steel, the reciever is 7075 aluminum alloy, while the handguards and shoulder piece are constructed from high-impact polymers. The barrel of the HA972 is hard-chromed to resist corrosion and general wear and tear.

The HA972 features a modular picatinny rail with an attachable protective cover that doubles as a forward grip when the rail is not in use. A 250/500 lumen xenon lamp tactical flashlight is built into the front of the rifle. The standard 250 lumen setting is powerful enough to provide sufficient lighting in dark interiors and night operations, while the 500 lumen setting can cause temporary blindness and disorientation in an opponent with night-adapted vision.

The rifle is fed by 60-round casket STANAG magazines. The magazine catch is reinforced to better handle the added stress of the heavy 60-round magazines. The magazine catch/release button is installed symmetrically in the pistol grip, in front of the magazine; the magazine catch is operated by an oversized actuator used when wearing NBC gloves.

The weapon's primary sight is a 2x magnified telescopic sight with night-operation optics contained in a metal housing above and forward of the trigger. The sight also houses the onboard computer systems, displaying ammunition count and barrel temperature, and can be synched with the user's Heads Up Display, allowing the user to fire accurately around corners and keep constant track of remaining ammunition. The secondary sight is a non-adjustable notch sight, molded into the telescopic sight housing. The entire sight housing can be removed from the optics rail in order to replace it with a different optics system as the situation warrants.

Variants
HA972d The HA972d is a desert-optimized rifle, designed to protect the rifle's action from fine grit and sand using a polymer casing and raised optics to avoid getting sand in the seam between the HA972 optics system and the optics rail. It also features improved iron sights to reduce the penalties of onboard computer system failure from overheating.