- Not to be confused with MAT Tritube, a related weapon.
The MAS Tritube was a French prototype triple-barreled assault rifle designed and produced by the Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne in prototype form only.
An experimental assault rifle design, the MAS Tritube was an attempt at increasing the rate of fire of an assault rifle.
History[]
The Tritube was designed in 1972[1] as an attempt to design a small-caliber assault rifle with a high rate of fire.
One prototype was built by the Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne and it competed against a similar design by the Manufacture Nationale d'Armes de Tulle. The design of both weapons proved unsatisfactory and the concept was not developed further.[2]
Design Details[]
The Tritube operated using a lever delayed blowback system.[1] The weapon takes three round plastic clips with three rounds inside them; these are inserted into oversized magazines which hold a number of these plastic clips.[2]
Ammunition[]
The weapon takes 5.56×45mm NATO ammunition inside square plastic clips.[2]
References[]
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