The FN FAL and its variants are renowned for their widespread use amongst not only amongst NATO countries, but also with anti-communist guerillas and regimes. This has earned the rifle its moniker as the "Right Arm of the Free World", an accidental marketing masterpiece that FN Herstal is happy to elevate.
As part of the 1958 Federal Army Small Arms trials, Oceanyka sought a section-level automatic rifle to replace the Bren Gun. The L2A1 quickly emerged as a solution; it is simply an L1A1 SLR with a heavier, longer barrel, an integrated bipod, and issued with larger magazines. When the Federal Army was dissolved and the OPA emerged in its place, the schematics for the L2A1 were sold to a number of gun manufacturers, as the new organisation intended to equip itself with Soviet RPK and PKM machineguns. As such, many local gunmakers around the country can transform L1A1s into automatic rifles, or produce new ones from scratch, with relative ease.