headquarters geneseo illinois united states key people eugene o brien vp operations walt hasser vp product management products firearms number of employees 51 200 est. parent strategic armory corps website armalite.com armalite or armalite is an american small arms engineering company founded in the early 1950s in hollywood california . it is now headquartered in geneseo illinois . 1 the idea of entering the small arms industry caught the interest of then company president richard boutelle at fairchild engine and airplane corporation and armalite was incorporated as a division of fairchild on 1 october 1954 . their first design the ar1 parasniper 1 from 1952 used foam filled fiberglass furniture and a composite barrel using a steel liner inside an aluminum sleeve . this was little used 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 reused in the smaller and lighter ar 15 . 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 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 clarification needed with the weapon . this led to its 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 when and was adopted by many nato countries in the 1980s . armalite had 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 . 2 the design rights and name were purchased in 1996 by mark westrom who re launched the company as armalite inc. now located in geneseo illinois . in 2013 westrom sold armalite inc. to strategic armory corps who also owns awc silencers surgeon rifles nexus ammo and mcmillan firearms . strategic armory corps was formed with the goal of acquiring and combining market leading companies within the firearms industry . 3 in 2014 3 gun champion tommy thacker was appointed president . in 2015 armalite introduced 18 new products including ar 10 and m 15 platform firearms . contents 1 history 1.1 products 2 resurrection of the armalite brand 3 see also 4 references 5 sources 6 external links history edit 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 . 4 after leasing a small machine shop 5 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 . 4 on october 1 1954 the company was incorporated as the armalite corporation becoming a subdivision of fairchild . 4 with its limited capital and tiny machine shop armalite was never intended to be an arms manufacturer . 4 armalite was instead focused on producing small arms concepts and designs to be sold or licensed to other manufacturers . 4 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 . 4 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 . 4 with stoner as chief design engineer armalite quickly released a number of interesting rifle concepts . 6 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 like the ar 5 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 when by henry repeating arms of bayonne new jersey and the rifle is still popular today . when 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 . 7 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 . 8 in 1957 fairchild armalite sold a five year manufacturing license for the ar 10 to the dutch arms manufacturer artillerie inrichtingen ai . converting the ar 10 engineering drawings to metric ai 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 continued throughout the production run in the netherlands . firearms historians who 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 ai produced ar 10 the portuguese was a product improved variant sold to the portuguese air force for use by paratroopers . 9 while ar 10 production at ai 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 9 10 11 12 resulting in a total production of less than 10 000 ar 10 rifles in four years . it appears that none of the design changes and product improvements made by ai 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 5.56 mm cartridge . 13 this resulted in the ar 15 designed by eugene stoner jim sullivan and bob fremont and chambered in 5.56 mm caliber . 13 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 . 14 frustrated by what it perceived as unnecessary production delays at ai and 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 . 14 with 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 less expensive 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 . due to the success of the fn fal h & k g3 and the us m14 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 . 15 in 1963 development began on the ar 18 rifle a downsized 5.56 mm ar 16 with a new gas system utilizing a short stroke gas 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 . 2 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 . clarification needed today the ar 180 is best known for its use by the provisional irish republican army in 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 . citation needed other designs such as the singapore sar 80 and german g36 are based upon the ar 18 . citation needed a derivative of the ar 18 was the ar 100 series . it came in four variants the closed bolt