ArmaLite ArmaLite , Inc . is an American small arms engineering company founded in the early 1950s . The company focused on using the latest advances in material design to produce lighter and better small weapons . The ideas caught the interest of Richard Boutelle at Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation , and the company was formally incorporated as a division of Fairchild on 1 October 1954 . Their first design , the Parasniper from 1952 , used foam - filled fibreglass furniture and a composite barrel using a steel liner inside an aluminum sleeve . This saw little use , but when they were asked to compete in a contest for an aircrew survival rifle , their AR - 5 and AR - 7 designs from 1956 saw production use . This was followed by an invitation to compete for the new combat rifle for US forces , which led to the AR - 10 . The AR - 10 lost the 1957 contest , but many of its ideas were re - used in the smaller and lighter AR - 15 , an experimental design that was detested by US Army brass . Tired of repeated failures in the market , Fairchild licensed the AR - 10 and AR - 15 designs to Colt , and the AR - 10 to a Dutch company . They sold their interest in ArmaLite in 1962 . That year , Colt successfully sold the AR - 15 to the US Air Force to arm base security troops . Commercial models were then sent to Special Forces in Vietnam , who reported great success with the weapon . This led to it being adopted as the Army ' s main combat rifle starting in 1964 . It has remained the US ' s primary combat rifle in one form or another to this day , and was adopted by many NATO countries in the 1980s . ArmaLite further brushes with success , especially with the AR - 18 , an improved AR - 15 design . These were not enough to keep the company going , and they ceased operations in the early 1980s . The design rights and name were purchased in 1996 by Mark Westrom , who re - launched the company as ArmaLite , Inc . , currently located in Geneseo , Illinois . The company sells a variety of AR - 10 and AR - 15 based designs . Company history . ArmaLite began as a small arms engineering concern founded by George Sullivan , the patent counsel for Lockheed Corporation , and funded by Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation . After leasing a small machine shop at 6567 Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood , California , Sullivan hired several employees and began work on a prototype for a lightweight survival rifle for use by downed aircrew . On October 1 , 1954 , the company was incorporated as the ArmaLite Corporation , becoming a subdivision of Fairchild . With its limited capital and tiny machine shop , ArmaLite was never intended to be an arms manufacturer . ArmaLite was instead focused on producing small arms concepts and designs to be sold or licensed to other manufacturers . While testing the prototype of ArmaLite ' s survival rifle design at a local shooting range , Sullivan met Eugene Stoner , a talented small arms inventor , who Sullivan immediately hired to be ArmaLite ' s chief design engineer . Stoner was a Marine in World War II and an expert with small arms . Since the early 1950s , he had been working at a variety of jobs while building gun prototypes in his spare time . At the time , ArmaLite Inc . was a very small organization ( as late as 1956 it had only nine employees , including Stoner ) . With Stoner as chief design engineer , ArmaLite quickly released a number of interesting rifle concepts . The first ArmaLite concept to be adopted for production was the AR - 5 , a survival rifle chambered for the . 22 Hornet cartridge . The AR - 5 was adopted by the U . S . Air Force as the MA - 1 Survival Rifle . A civilian survival weapon , the AR - 7 , was later introduced , chambered in . 22 Long Rifle . The semi - automatic AR - 7 was noteworthy in that , like the AR - 5 , it could be disassembled , and the components stored in the buttstock . Primarily made of alloys , the AR - 7 would float , whether assembled or stored , due to the design of the buttstock , which was filled with plastic foam . The AR - 7 and derivative models have been produced by several companies since introduction in the late 1950s , currently by Henry Repeating Arms , of Brooklyn , NY , and the rifle is still popular today . Most of ArmaLite ' s time and engineering effort in 1955 and 1956 was spent in developing the prototypes for what would become the AR - 10 . Based on Stoner ' s fourth prototype , two hand - built production AR - 10s were tested by the Springfield Armory in late 1956 and again in 1957 as a possible replacement to the venerable yet outdated M1 Garand . The untested AR - 10 faced competition from the two other major rifle designs , the Springfield Armory T - 44 , an updated M1 Garand design that became the M14 , and the T - 48 , a version of the famous Belgian FN FAL rifle . Both the T - 44 and the T - 48 had a lead of several years over the AR - 10 in development and trials testing ; the T - 44 had the additional advantage of being an in - house Springfield Armory design . The Army eventually selected the T - 44 over both the AR - 10 and the T - 48 . ArmaLite continued to market the AR - 10 based on a limited production of rifles at their Hollywood facility . These limited production , virtually hand - built rifles are referred to today as the Hollywood model AR - 10 . In 1957 , Fairchild / ArmaLite sold a five - year manufacturing license for the AR - 10 to the Dutch arms manufacturer , Artillerie Inrichtingen ( A . I . ) . Converting the AR - 10 engineering drawings to metric , A . I . found the Hollywood version of the AR - 10 deficient in a number of respects , and made a number of significant design and engineering changes in the AR - 10 that would continued throughout the production run in Holland . Firearms historians have separated AR - 10 production under the AI license into three identifiable versions of the AR - 10 : the Sudanese model , the Transitional , and the Portuguese model AR - 10 . The Sudanese version derives its name from its sale to the Government of Sudan , which purchased approximately 2 , 500 AR - 10 rifles , while the Transitional model incorporated additional design changes based on experience with the Sudanese model in the field . The final A . I . - produced AR - 10 , the Portuguese , was a product - improved variant sold to the Portuguese Air Force for use by paratroopers . While AR - 10 production at A . I . dwarfed that of ArmaLite ' s Hollywood shop , it was still limited , as sales to foreign armies proved elusive . Guatemala , Burma , Italy , Cuba , Sudan and Portugal all purchased AR - 10 rifles for limited issue to their military forces , resulting in a total production of less than 10 , 000 AR - 10 rifles in four years . Curiously , it appears that none of the design changes and product improvements made by A . I . were ever transmitted to or adopted by ArmaLite . Disappointed with AR - 10 sales , Fairchild Armalite decided to terminate its association with Artillerie Inrichtingen and instead concentrated on producing a small - caliber version of the AR - 10 to meet a requirement for the U . S . Air Force . Using the Hollywood produced AR - 10 , the prototype was downsized in dimensions to accept the . 223 Remington ( 5 . 56mm ) cartridge . This resulted in the famous AR - 15 , designed by Eugene Stoner , Jim Sullivan , and Bob Fremont , and chambered in 5 . 56mm caliber . ArmaLite also re - introduced the AR - 10 , this time using a design derived from the original Hollywood prototypes of 1956 , and designated the AR - 10A . Unable to produce either rifle in quantity , ArmaLite was forced to license both designs to Colt in early 1959 . That same year , ArmaLite moved its corporate offices and engineering and production shop to new premises at 118 East 16th Street in Costa Mesa , California . Frustrated by what it perceived as unnecessary production delays at A . I . , along with poor AR - 10 sales , Fairchild decided not to renew Artillerie Inrichtingen ' s license to produce the AR - 10 . In 1962 , disappointed with ArmaLite ' s meagre profits , largely derived from licensing fees , Fairchild dissolved its association with ArmaLite . With both the AR - 10 and AR - 15 designs sold to Colt , ArmaLite was left without a viable major infantry arm to market to potential manufacturers and end users . ArmaLite next developed a series of new rifle designs in 7 . 62 mm and 5 . 56 mm . The 7 . 62 mm NATO rifle was designated the AR - 16 . The AR - 16 and the other newly designed ArmaLites utilized a more traditional gas piston design along with stamped and welded steel construction in place of aluminum forgings . The 7 . 62 mm AR - 16 ( not to be confused with the M16 ) was produced only in prototype quantities . Another ArmaLite project was the AR - 17 , a two - shot autoloading shotgun based on the short - recoil principle and featuring a weight of only 5 . 5 pounds thanks to its aluminum and plastic construction ; only about 1 , 200 were ever produced . In 1963 , development began on the AR - 18 rifle , an " improved " AR - 15 with a new gas system utilizing a floating piston instead of the Stoner direct gas impingement system used on the AR - 10 and AR - 15 . Designed by Art Miller , the AR - 18 was accompanied by a semi - automatic version , the AR - 180 . However , the sales success of the AR - 15 worldwide to the U . S . military and other nations proved the undoing of the AR - 18 , and the latter failed to garner substantial orders . In response to criticism of the rifle ' s performance in trials by the military in the United States and Great Britain , a few minor improvements were made to the original design , but little else was done . ArmaLite manufactured some AR - 18 and AR - 180 rifles at its Costa Mesa facility and later licensed production to Howa Machinery Co . in Japan . However , Japan was prohibited under its laws from selling military - style arms to combative nations , and with the United States involved in the Vietnam war , production at the Howa plant was limited . ArmaLite then licensed production to Sterling Armaments in Dagenham , Great Britain . Sales remained modest . Today , the AR - 18 is best known for its use by the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland , who received small quantities of the rifle from black market sources . The AR - 18 gas system and rotating bolt mechanism did serve as the basis for the current British small arms family , the SA80 , which came from the XL65 which is essentially an AR - 18 in bullpup configuration . Other designs , such as the Singapore SAR - 80 and German G36 , are based upon the AR - 18 . By the 1970s , ArmaLite had essentially stopped all new rifle development , and the company effectively ceased operations . In 1983 ArmaLite was sold to Elisco Tool Manufacturing Company , of the Philippines . The AR - 18 tooling at the Costa Mesa shop went to the Philippines , while some of the remaining ArmaLite employees acquired the remaining inventory of parts for the AR - 17 and AR - 18 . Resurrection of the ArmaLite brand . After passing through a series of owners , the ArmaLite brand name and rampant lion logo was sold in 1996 to Mark Westrom , a former U . S . Army Ordnance officer and inventor of a 7 . 62 NATO sniper rifle based on the design concepts of Eugene Stoner . The company resumed business as ArmaLite Inc . Today , ArmaLite Inc . produces a number of AR - 15 and AR - 10 based rifles , as well as . 50 BMG rifles ( the AR - 50 ) and a modified AR - 180 named the AR - 180B . Armalite has also announced that they are introducing a handgun line including the AR - 24 and AR - 26 .