C19 rifle: Difference between revisions

The Calderan Armed Forces began the goal of adopting a new rifle in December of 2003, after the [[2003 Austro-Calderan revolt|Siege of Little Caldera]] revealed weaknesses in the current rifle design. The Calderan Armed Forces enlisted multiple manufacturers to come up with a superior rifle design, with the prerequisites that the new rifle being: firstly, the rifle had to use a lighter cartridge than 7.92mm Kurz, and secondly, the rifle had to reload faster than the StG-44.

To come up with a design that fit these criteria, Calderan manufacturers turned to foreign designs, applying the [[Levantine Union|Levantine]] 5.56 millimeter cartridge to a frame of disputed origin. The Calderan manufacturer [[Tauk]] claims to have designed the operating system themselves, but other manufacturers contend this, citing the [[Farmandie|Farman]] FAMle-04 and the [[Caphiria|Caphirian]] [[Cileo 220]] as both using the same operating system, meaning Tauk likely stole the design from one of those rifles or an even older model, but Taulk maintains their position that they invented the operating system, and similarity is a coincidence.

In summer of 2019, the Calderan government gave Tauk the task of producing 40 prototypes of their XM149 proposition for use in trials against the [[Keun]] XE54 and Lachsen XR5. The XM149 outperformed both competitors by having the lightest weight and the easiest to operate charging handle out of the 3 designs. By autumn, the Calderan Armed Forces already had 849 in service, with plans to adopt more in the future.

Since 2019, the Calderan Armed Forces have been trying to replace the StG-44 with the C19 completely, but have not finished due to the sheer number of weapons that need to be replaced. The General of the Army, Issac Pope, commented that the C19 would never be able to completely replace all rifles in service, unless all old rifles were culled, which the Calderan government is against.