CZ 805 BREN

The CZ 805 BREN is a gas-operated modular assault rifle developed by Česká zbrojovka Uherský Brod to replace the Vz. 58 in the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic. Its lineage runs back to the Lada project begun in 1977 at the Brno General Machine-Building Plants: Czechoslovakia was the only Warsaw Pact member whose army never issued an AK-based rifle, and by the 1970s the Vz. 58 was obsolete and hard to modify. A 5.45x39mm Lada design was approved in 1984 and cleared for production in November 1989, but the Velvet Revolution and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia left the smaller Czech army without funds for the planned 300,000 rifles, and CZUB shelved it. The project was revived in the late 1990s as NATO membership approached, rechambered to 5.56x45mm NATO and offered for export as the CZ 2000.

Redesignated Project 805 for the domestic Army Replacement Rifle programme, it was rebuilt to entirely new specifications from late 2005 and shown publicly for three years before the Czech Army finally issued a tender in November 2009. Of 27 weapons submitted, the field narrowed to the CZ 805 and the FN SCAR-L; the Czech design won narrowly on 1 February 2010, with emphasis placed on domestic manufacture, and FN Herstal did not contest the result. The order of 18 March 2010 covered 6,687 CZ 805 BREN A1 rifles, 1,250 A2 carbines and 397 CZ 805 G1 grenade launchers, all with Meopta red dot sights. The army requested changes before the weapon was declared operational, including a folding rather than folding-and-telescoping stock, a pin-stabilised magazine well, a pistol grip with changeable backstraps and a six-lug bolt in place of the seven-lug design. First deliveries came on 19 July 2011.

The rifle uses a locked breech with a rotating bolt driven by gas tapped from the barrel through a manual regulator. The ambidextrous safety and fire selector allows semi-automatic, two-round burst and fully automatic fire, and the charging handle can be moved to either side. It has flip-up iron sights and an integral Picatinny rail on the receiver, and a side-folding buttstock that on later models is adjustable for length of pull and fully removable. The chrome-lined barrel comes in two lengths: 360 mm on the A1 rifle and 277 mm on the A2 carbine. A distinctive feature is the separate detachable magazine housing, which can be swapped to accept STANAG or G36 magazines, the 100-round Beta C-Mag, or the transparent polymer 30-round magazine CZUB supplies as standard.

CZUB has continued to develop the family. The CZ 807 is a dual-calibre model built originally for an Indian tender - scrapped in 2015 - that changes between 7.62x39mm and 5.56x45mm NATO by swapping barrel assembly, bolt, firing pin and magazine well insert; it was a finalist in Pakistan's competition to replace the G3 and Type 56, leading to a 2016 technology-transfer agreement with Pakistan Ordnance Factories. The lighter CZ BREN 2, announced in October 2015 with half a kilogram shaved off, revised cocking mechanism and simpler cleaning, was ordered by the Czech Army in January 2016 under an urgent requirement, and has since been followed by the BREN 2 BR, BREN 2 DMR and BREN 3. The Slovak Army began replacing its Vz. 58 rifles with the CZ 805 BREN in 2014, and the family also serves in Indonesia, Mexico and Ukraine.