Rifle MAS-36 (France). Mas 36 rifle

Rifle MAS-36 | Armies and Soldiers. Military encyclopedia

“MAS-36 rifle - capabilities, history of creation, design features and modifications”

Characteristics of the MAS-36 Rifle

The history of the creation of the MAS-36 rifle

The French MAS-36 rifle became the last rifle with a manual bolt opening, which was adopted by any of the strongest armies in the world. Since it was developed after all the most “iconic” rifles of the 20th century: the Russian Mosin rifle, the English Lee-Anvild, the German Mauser 98, its developers could safely borrow the best solutions of foreign colleagues for their needs.

As a result, the MAS-36 rifle, developed at the armory, had a design and operating principle similar to the German Mauser, but the rear locking lug was similar to the British Lee Enfield. Unlike the British rifle, the MAS was not as easy to handle, so the bolt handle had to be angled forward to make it easier for the shooter to open the bolt.

The French MAS-36 rifle is not only good in combat, but also aesthetically pleasing in appearance

The new rifle was very technologically advanced in production, was distinguished by its short length and light weight, noticeably outperforming the models in service in neighboring countries in these characteristics.

The slowness of the French, who not only started later than others, but also carried out developments very leisurely, led to the fact that only a few rifle units were armed with the new MAS-36 rifles before the German invasion of France. In total, by this time it was possible to produce about 250 thousand MAS-36.

French MAS-36 rifle with optical sight

After the occupation of Northern France, production of the MAS-36 continued (German designation 242(f)) for the needs of the occupying forces and Vichy France and was discontinued in 1942.

Beginning in 1944 and continuing until 1953, MAS-36 production was restored, but now all MAS-36s produced were made for the French Army itself. By the early 1960s, MAS-36s were replaced by more advanced weapons systems in the military, but they were used in honor guard and police units much later than that.

French MAS-36 rifle and ammunition, including 20mm rifle grenades

Design of the MAS-36 rifle

As noted above, the design of the French MAS-36 rifle, whenever possible, used the developments of foreign “colleagues” and in this regard did not pretend to be very original.

The bolt is a longitudinally sliding rotary bolt, locked by two lugs at the rear of the bolt body. The reloading handle is located at the rear of the bolt and is curved down and forward for more convenient control. The trigger mechanism is impact type, there is no safety lock.

The magazine is built-in, with a hinged bottom cover, designed for 5 rounds. The magazine is loaded with one cartridge at a time or from 5-round plate clips through a window in the receiver at the top, with the bolt open.

Rifle MAS-36. The folding sight and barrel attachment for throwing rifle grenades are clearly visible

The stock is split, wooden, consisting of three parts to facilitate cleaning and maintenance of the weapon. Parts of the stock: butt, fore-end, barrel lining.

The MAS-36 was equipped with a needle bayonet, which, in the stowed position, is carried with the tip rearwards in a special tube under the barrel, hidden in the forend.

The sight is diopter, adjustable from 100 to 1500 meters in increments of 100 meters.

Modifications of the MAS-36 rifle

• MAS-36 premier - rifles of the first releases, pre-war.
• MAS-36 deuxieme - wartime rifles.
• MAS-36 CR39 is a 1939 model carbine with a barrel shortened to 450 mm and an aluminum stock folding down and forward. Designed for airborne units and alpine riflemen. 6000 pieces produced.
• MAS-36 LG48 is a 1948 model rifle equipped with a 48 mm M1948 rifle grenade launcher.
• MAS-36/51 (M1936 M51) is a 1951 model rifle equipped with a 22 mm NATO standard rifle grenade launcher. It also featured a removable rubber pad on the butt, a reinforced barrel, and an aiming bar for firing grenades.

Source: compilation based on publicly available information on the Internet

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Rifle MAS 36 (France) – Modern Firearms

MAS 36 rifle.

MAS 36-51 rifle with a rifle grenade launcher on the muzzle of the barrel.

Diagram of the MAS 36 rifle.

Caliber: 7.5×54 mmLength: 1020 mmBarrel length: 575 mmWeight: 3.7 kg without cartridgesMagazine: 5 cartridges

The French army was the first in the world to adopt smokeless powder cartridges back in 1886. However, by the beginning of the 1920s, both the 8mm cartridge with a rim and the Berthier and Lebel rifles for it were fairly outdated. As expected, the French began by developing a new cartridge with a rimless case, which had a nominal caliber of 7.5mm. In 1924, the first version of the new cartridge, as well as a light machine gun for it, was put into service. However, the cartridge turned out to be unfinished, and in 1929 France adopted a slightly shortened version of the cartridge under the designation 7.5mm Cartouche Mle.1929C (7.5x54mm). The old Berthier rifles were initially re-barreled for this cartridge, and then the development of a new repeating rifle began. In 1936, a rifle developed at the state arsenal in Saint-Etienne (Manufacture D'Armes de Saint-Etienne, MAS) was adopted by the French army. The rifle was designated MAS Mle.1936 (MAS-36). In 1939, the French adopted a special version of the rifle, designed for paratroopers, and having a folding downward-forward buttstock made of aluminum alloy. This rifle was called the MAS-36 CR 39. The MAS-36 rifles were in service in France until the early 1960s, when they were replaced by the MAS-49 and MAS-49/56 self-loading rifles. Production of MAS-36 rifles lasted from 1936 to 1954. Since 1951, a modification of the MAS-36-51 rifle was also made, distinguished by the presence of a rifle grenade launcher and a sight for it permanently attached to the barrel. Rifle grenades were launched using special blank cartridges. Based on the mechanisms of the MAS-36 rifle, the FR F-1 and FR F-2 sniper rifles were later developed, which are still in service in France.

The MAS-36 rifle has a longitudinally sliding rotary bolt, locked by two lugs at the rear of the bolt body. The reloading handle is located at the rear of the bolt and is bent downward and forward for more convenient control. The trigger mechanism is striker-fired and does not have any safety devices. The magazine is integral, with a hinged (for unloading, maintenance and cleaning) bottom cover. The magazine is loaded with one cartridge at a time or from 5-round plate clips through a window in the receiver at the top, with the bolt open. The stock is wooden, made of two parts, connected by a receiver. The needle bayonet in the stowed position is carried with its tip backwards in a special tube under the barrel, hidden in the forend. The sight is diopter, adjustable in range from 100 to 1500 meters in increments of 100 meters.

modernfirearms.net

Rifle MAS-36 (France)

The French army was the first in the world to adopt smokeless powder cartridges back in 1886.
However, by the beginning of the 1920s, both the 8-mm cartridge with a rim and the Berthier and Lebel rifles for it were fairly outdated. As expected, the French began by developing a new cartridge with a rimless case, which had a nominal caliber of 7.5 mm. In 1924, the first version of the new cartridge, as well as a light machine gun for it, was put into service. However, the cartridge turned out to be unfinished, and in 1929 France adopted a slightly shortened version of the cartridge under the designation 7.5-mm Cartouche Mle.1929C (7.5×54 mm). The old Berthier rifles were initially re-barreled for this cartridge, and then the development of a new repeating rifle began. In 1936, a rifle developed at the state arsenal in Saint-Etienne (Manufacture D'Armes de Saint-Etienne, MAS) was adopted by the French army. The rifle was designated MAS Mle.1936 (MAS-36). In 1939, the French adopted a special version of the rifle, designed for paratroopers, and having a folding downward-forward buttstock made of aluminum alloy. This rifle was called the MAS-36 CR 39. The MAS-36 rifles were in service in France until the early 1960s, when they were replaced by the MAS-49 and MAS-49/56 self-loading rifles. Production of MAS-36 rifles lasted from 1936 to 1954. Since 1951, a modification of the MAS-36-51 rifle was also made, distinguished by the presence of a rifle grenade launcher and a sight for it permanently attached to the barrel. Rifle grenades were launched using special blank cartridges. Based on the mechanisms of the MAS-36 rifle, the FR F-1 and FR F-2 sniper rifles were later developed, which are still in service in France.

The MAS-36 rifle has a longitudinally sliding rotary bolt, locked by two lugs at the rear of the bolt body. The reloading handle is located at the rear of the bolt and is bent downward and forward for more convenient control. The trigger mechanism is striker-fired and does not have any safety devices. The magazine is integral, with a hinged (for unloading, maintenance and cleaning) bottom cover. The magazine is loaded with one cartridge at a time or from 5-round plate clips through a window in the receiver at the top, with the bolt open. The stock is wooden, made of two parts, connected by a receiver. The needle bayonet in the stowed position is carried with its tip backwards in a special tube under the barrel, hidden in the forend. The sight is diopter, adjustable in range from 100 to 1500 meters in increments of 100 meters.

Performance characteristics of MAS-36Cartridge: 7.5×54 “French standard”Total length: 1022 mm Barrel length: 575 mm Weight: 3.75 kg Rifling: 4 right-handed Magazine capacity: 5 rounds

Marking "ST ETIENNE" and year of manufacture on the left side of the receiver. Serial number on the right side of the receiver.

Safety devices This weapon does not have safety devices. BE CAREFUL.

UnloadingOpen the bolt to remove any cartridge that may be in the chamber. Then press the magazine cover latch (on the right side of the receiver in front of the magazine) and place your hand to accept the contents of the magazine. Make sure that there is no cartridge in the chamber and magazine, close the bolt, and pull the trigger. Replace the feeder, spring and bottom magazine cover.

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M16 (automatic rifle) (USA)

The history of the creation and adoption of the second most common assault rifle in the world (after the Kalashnikov assault rifle) M16 deserves a separate thick book. In fact, such books have been written, but they will not be published in Russian soon, so I will give here as brief a history of this rifle as possible. So:

M16 (official designation - Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is an American automatic rifle of 5.56 mm caliber, developed on the basis of the AR-15 rifle and adopted for service in the 1960s.

An automatic rifle of 5.56×45 mm caliber with an air-cooled barrel, automatic operation based on a gas engine (using the energy of powder gases) and a locking circuit by rotating the bolt. Powder gases, diverted from the barrel through a thin gas outlet tube, act directly on the bolt frame (and not on the piston, as in many other schemes), pushing it back. The moving bolt frame rotates the bolt, thereby disengaging it from the barrel. Then the bolt and bolt carrier move under the influence of residual pressure in the chamber, compressing the return spring, and at the same time the spent cartridge case is ejected. The straightening return spring pushes the bolt group back, the bolt removes a new cartridge from the magazine and sends it into the chamber, after which it engages (locks) with the barrel. This completes the automatic operation cycle and after the shot everything is repeated all over again.

The M16 and its variants remain the main weapon of the American infantry to this day. This is one of the most common models of small arms in the world - more than 8 million copies were produced.

M16 is a rifle with a classic layout. The butt contains devices for cleaning weapons. On the right side of the receiver you can clearly see the bolt rammer (designed for manually chambering the bolt if the energy of the return spring is not enough) and the cover above the cartridge ejector window, which protects the mechanism from dirt and automatically opens when the bolt is cocked. In addition, on rifles, starting with the M16A2 modification, a reflector appeared, which allows the shooter to fire from the left shoulder without fear of cartridges getting into the face.

The rifle received its “baptism of fire” during the Indonesian-Malaysian confrontation of 1962-1966, where it was used by special units of the British army. However, the M16 gained worldwide fame during the Vietnam War, where it was widely used by the US and South Vietnamese armies.

MAS-49 and MAS-49/56 (France)

Rifle MAS-1949. photo: Kristopher Gasior

Rifle MAS-1949/56. photo: Jean Plamondon

MAS-49/56 rifle - view of the receiver, the bolt is open and set on the bolt stop. The adjustable diopter rear sight, bolt handle, clip guides on the bolt carrier, and the outlet end of the gas tube (on the right in the photo, above the chamber) are clearly visible. Photo: Jean Plamondon

With the end of the Second World War, the French army faced the need to rearm with a modern self-loading rifle. It must be said that in France, the development of self-loading rifles has been carried out since the end of the 19th century, and not without success, therefore, immediately after the liberation of France from the German occupation in 1944, the state arsenal in the city of Saint-Etienne - Manufacture Nationale d'Armes de St-Etienne ( MAS), taking as a basis its own developments of the 1920s-30s, created the MAS-1944 self-loading rifle. The rifle was produced in a small series (about 6,000 pieces), and over the next years it was modified and put into service in 1949 under the designation Fusil Automatique MAS-1949. In 1956, the rifle was modernized and, under the designation MAS-1949/56, was again put into service and was used by the French army until the end of the 1970s, when the FAMAS assault rifle (assault rifle) of 5.56mm NATO caliber was officially adopted. The MAS-1949 and MAS-1949/56 rifles were widely used in the French wars in Indochina (Vietnam) and Algeria, demonstrating high reliability, ease of use and good shooting accuracy.

The MAS-1949 rifle is built on an automatic basis with a gas engine with direct exhaust of powder gases to the bolt frame. This system was developed by the Frenchman Rossignol by the 1920s, and much later was also used in the Swedish Ljungman AG-42 rifle, and then in the AR-15 / M16 rifles designed by Eugene Stoner. The gas chamber is located above the barrel, from which powder gases flow through a gas outlet tube to the receiver, where they act directly on the bolt frame. Locking is carried out by tilting the rear part of the bolt downwards, behind the cutout in the bottom of the receiver. The trigger mechanism is hammer-operated and allows only single fire. The safety in the form of a transverse button is located in the front of the trigger guard. The rifle is fed from detachable box magazines with a capacity of 10 rounds. Loading a rifle is possible either by attaching a full magazine to replace an empty one, or by loading an empty magazine through the upper window in the receiver with cartridges from 5-round clips. Guides for the clips are made on the bolt frame. The design includes a bolt stop that stops the bolt in the rear position when all the cartridges in the magazine are used up. A distinctive feature of the rifle magazines is that the magazine latch is made not on the receiver, but on the magazine itself. Sights - a front sight in a muzzle on the front stock ring and a diopter rear sight adjustable both in range (from 200 to 1200 meters) and in elevation, installed in the rear of the receiver. All MAS-1949 rifles are equipped with a special guide for installing an optical sight bracket on the left wall of the receiver. The rifle can be used to throw rifle grenades from the muzzle using special blank cartridges, for which the design includes a gas path cut-off and a special grenade launcher sight on the left side of the stock. In the muzzle of the rifle on the right there is a hook for placing the rifle in the sawhorse. A bayonet mount is not provided.

The MAS-1949/56 rifle had the following differences from the original model: The barrel and forend were shortened; The weight of the weapon has been reduced by more than 0.5 kilograms; The grenade launcher sight and the base of the front sight are moved to the barrel; the gas release mechanism cut-off valve is located at the front edge of the forearm above the barrel. On the muzzle of the barrel there is a combined muzzle brake, which serves as a guide for launching rifle grenades. The rear sight and optical sight mounts are similar to those found on the MAS-1949 rifle. It became possible to install a needle bayonet, and the hook for mounting rifles on sawhorses disappeared.

For use as sniper rifles, the MAS-1949 and MAS-1949/59 could be equipped with an APX L Modele 1953 optical sight with a magnification of 3.85X, while the effective aimed shooting range was about 600 meters.

modernfirearms.net

FN FAL (Belgium)

FN FAL (French Fusil Automatique Leger - light automatic rifle) is a NATO firearm manufactured in Belgium by Fabrique Nationale de Herstal. One of the most recognized and widespread automatic rifles.

The FN FAL was originally developed for the 7.92x33mm intermediate cartridge used by the Germans during World War II, followed by prototypes chambered for the English .280 British cartridge. Later it was converted to the 7.62x51 mm NATO cartridge, adopted as a single cartridge for NATO countries. During the Cold War, she received the nickname “the right hand of the free world.”

The development of a new automatic rifle chambered for the German intermediate cartridge 7.92x33mm Kurz (read: assault rifle) was started by the FN company in 1946 and was carried out in parallel with the creation of a rifle chambered for “traditional” rifle cartridges. The development of both rifles was led by the famous designer, Browning student Dieudonne Saive. A rifle chambered for conventional full-size cartridges was released in 1949 under the designation SAFN-49, around the same time the first prototypes of a new assault rifle appeared, created for the new intermediate cartridge 7x43mm (.280) of English design. In 1950, new 7mm assault rifles - Belgian and English EM-2 - were tested in the USA. The Americans recognize the merits of the Belgian rifle design, but completely reject the idea of ​​an intermediate cartridge - instead they create a slightly (12 mm) shortened version of their standard .30-06 rifle cartridge under the designation T65. Within the framework of the newly created NATO alliance, a program to standardize small arms systems begins, and under US pressure in 1953-54, NATO adopted the T65 as a single new American cartridge under the NATO designation 7.62x51mm. At the same time, something like a gentleman’s agreement is concluded between the United States, Belgium and England - in exchange for the acceptance by European NATO member countries of a new American cartridge, the United States will adopt a Belgian rifle modified for a new single cartridge. As the near future has shown, the Americans did not fulfill their part of the agreement, and in 1957 they adopted the M14 rifle of their own design instead of the FN FAL.

Rifle MAS 36 – France – Rifles – Catalog of articles

Rifle MAS 36

Rifle MAS 36

Rifle MAS 36

MAS 36-51 rifle with a rifle grenade launcher on the muzzle of the barrel.

MAS 36 rifle diagram

Modifications of the Rifle MAS-36-MAS-36 CR 39 1939. Option with a folding stock.

MAS-36-51 1951 With a rifle grenade launcher and a sight for it permanently attached to the barrel.

Caliber: 7.5×54 mm Length: 1020 mm Barrel length: 575 mm Weight: 3.7 kg without cartridges Magazine: 5 cartridges

The French army was the first in the world to adopt smokeless powder cartridges back in 1886. However, by the beginning of the 1920s, both the 8mm cartridge with a rim and the Berthier and Lebel rifles for it were fairly outdated. As expected, the French began by developing a new cartridge with a rimless case, which had a nominal caliber of 7.5mm. In 1924, the first version of the new cartridge, as well as a light machine gun for it, was put into service. However, the cartridge turned out to be unfinished, and in 1929 France adopted a slightly shortened version of the cartridge under the designation 7.5mm Cartouche Mle.1929C (7.5x54mm). The old Berthier rifles were initially re-barreled for this cartridge, and then the development of a new repeating rifle began. In 1936, a rifle developed at the state arsenal in Saint-Etienne (Manufacture D'Armes de Saint-Etienne, MAS) was adopted by the French army. The rifle was designated MAS Mle.1936 (MAS-36). In 1939, the French adopted a special version of the rifle, designed for paratroopers, and having a folding downward-forward buttstock made of aluminum alloy. This rifle was called the MAS-36 CR 39. The MAS-36 rifles were in service in France until the early 1960s, when they were replaced by the MAS-49 and MAS-49/56 self-loading rifles. Production of MAS-36 rifles lasted from 1936 to 1954. Since 1951, a modification of the MAS-36-51 rifle was also made, distinguished by the presence of a rifle grenade launcher and a sight for it permanently attached to the barrel. Rifle grenades were launched using special blank cartridges. Based on the mechanisms of the MAS-36 rifle, the FR F-1 and FR F-2 sniper rifles were later developed, which are still in service in France.

The MAS-36 rifle has a longitudinally sliding rotary bolt, locked by two lugs at the rear of the bolt body. The reloading handle is located at the rear of the bolt and is bent downward and forward for more convenient control. The trigger mechanism is striker-fired and does not have any safety devices. The magazine is integral, with a hinged (for unloading, maintenance and cleaning) bottom cover. The magazine is loaded with one cartridge at a time or from 5-round plate clips through a window in the receiver at the top, with the bolt open. The stock is wooden, made of two parts, connected by a receiver. The needle bayonet in the stowed position is carried with its tip backwards in a special tube under the barrel, hidden in the forend. The sight is diopter, adjustable in range from 100 to 1500 meters in increments of 100 meters.

calibr.ucoz.ru

Rifle MAS36 | Weapon

The MAS36 rifle, with manual chambering of the cartridge using the bolt, became the last weapon of this type to enter service with the French infantry en masse. Nevertheless, some copies remained in the army until 1939.

After World War I, the command of the French army repeatedly discussed the need to adopt a new 7.5 mm rifle cartridge. The decision was made in 1924, but there was no rush to implement it.

In addition, tests dragged on, during which it turned out that the new cartridge was unsafe under certain circumstances. Serial production began only in 1929, and then the French decided to create a new rifle chambered for this cartridge. A prototype was created by 1932, then a series of protracted tests began, and only in 1936 the rifle was put into service.

It received the designation “MAS36 Rifle” (the abbreviation MAS comes from the name of the arms factory - Manufacture d Armes de Saint Etienne). It used a significantly modified Mauser bolt system, with the bolt handle angled forward.

The box magazine held only five rounds. The MAS36 was the last repeating rifle in the world to be put into service (all subsequent models were self-loading), so in a sense, the French rifle was already an anachronism at that time. In typical French style, the rifle had no safety, and its overall appearance made one think that it was invented long before its actual time of creation.

Slow rearmament

The production of the new rifle was delayed to such an extent that an additional program was developed to convert old rifles to the new cartridge. The slowness and state of a certain “half-oblivion” in matters of re-equipping its own army seemed strange for a nation that suffered huge losses in the First World War.

However, even by 1939, few French units were armed with the new rifles. It is clear that the MAS36 rifles did not, and could not, play any significant role in the events of May - June 1940. Some French soldiers who left their occupied homeland at that time took their weapons with them, so for some time these rifles were found abroad, mainly in Algeria.

The Germans, having captured the remaining rifles, assigned them the designation Gewehr 242 (f) and armed them with the guards of their garrisons in occupied France. One of the more unusual modifications to the base rifle was the MAS36 CR39 model. It had a shortened barrel, an aluminum butt folding to one side, and was intended to arm paratroopers.

Only a small number of them were manufactured and even fewer entered the army. When the Second World War ended, the new French army again received at its disposal a large number of MAS36 rifles, which remained in service for a long time and were used in the colonial wars in North Africa and Indochina. These rifles are still used by paramilitary and police forces in some former French colonies.

Rifle MAS36 characteristics:

• MAS36
• Cartridge: 7.5 mm
• Weight: 3.67 kg
• Overall length: 1019 mm
• Barrel length: 574 mm
• Initial bullet speed: 623 m/s
• Magazine: box-shaped, capacity 5 rounds

Previous article: Lebel and Berthier rifles Next article: Type 38 and Type 99 rifles
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Everything you wanted to know about the MAC address

Everyone knows that these six bytes, usually displayed in hexadecimal format, are assigned to the network card at the factory, and are seemingly random.
Some people know that the first three bytes of the address are the manufacturer ID, and the remaining three bytes are assigned to them. It is also known that you can set yourself an arbitrary address. Many people have heard about “random addresses” in Wi-Fi. Let's figure out what it is.

MAC address (media access control address) is a unique identifier assigned to a network adapter, used in networks of IEEE 802 standards, mainly Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Officially it is called the "EUI-48 type identifier". From the name it is obvious that the address is 48 bits long, i.e. 6 bytes. There is no generally accepted standard for writing an address (as opposed to an IPv4 address, where octets are always separated by dots). It is usually written as six hexadecimal numbers separated by a colon: 00:AB:CD:EF:11:22, although some equipment manufacturers prefer the notation 00 -AB-CD-EF-11-22 and even 00ab.cdef.1122.

Historically, addresses were flashed into the ROM of the network card chipset without the ability to modify them without a flash programmer, but nowadays the address can be changed programmatically from the operating system. You can manually set the MAC address of a network card in Linux and MacOS (always), Windows (almost always, if the driver allows), Android (only rooted); With iOS (without root) such a trick is impossible.

Address structure

The address consists of part of the manufacturer's identifier, OUI, and an identifier assigned by the manufacturer. The IEEE organization is responsible for assigning OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) ​​identifiers. In fact, its length can be not only 3 bytes (24 bits), but 28 or 36 bits, from which blocks (MAC Address Block, MA) of addresses of types Large (MA-L), Medium (MA-M) and Small are formed (MA-S) respectively. The size of the issued block, in this case, will be 24, 20, 12 bits or 16 million, 1 million, 4 thousand addresses. There are currently about 38 thousand blocks distributed, and they can be viewed using numerous online tools, such as IEEE or Wireshark.

Who owns the addresses?

A simple manipulation of the publicly available IEEE download database yields quite a lot of information. For example, some organizations have taken a lot of OUI blocks for themselves. Here are our heroes:

Google has only 40 of them, and this is not surprising: they themselves do not produce many network devices.

MA blocks are not provided for free, they can be purchased for a reasonable price (without a subscription fee) for $3000, $1800 or $755, respectively. Interestingly, for additional money (per year) you can purchase “hiding” of public information about the allocated block. There are now 232 of them, as can be seen above.

When will we run out of MAC addresses?

We are all pretty tired of the stories that have been going on for 10 years that “IPv4 addresses are about to run out.” Yes, new IPv4 blocks are no longer easy to obtain. It is known that IP addresses are distributed extremely unevenly; There are gigantic and underutilized blocks owned by large corporations and US government agencies, however, with little hope of redistributing them to those in need. The proliferation of NAT, CG-NAT and IPv6 has made the problem of a shortage of public addresses less acute.

A MAC address has 48 bits, of which 46 can be considered “useful” (why? read on), which gives 246 or 1014 addresses, which is 214 times more than the IPv4 address space. Currently, approximately half a trillion addresses have been distributed, or only 0.73% of the total volume. We are still very, very far from running out of MAC addresses.

Randomness bits

It can be assumed that the OUIs are distributed randomly, and the vendor then also randomly assigns addresses to individual network devices. Is it so? Let's look at the distribution of bits in the databases of MAC addresses of 802.11 devices at my disposal, collected by working authorization systems in WNAM wireless networks. The addresses belong to real devices that connected to Wi-Fi over several years in three countries. In addition there is a small database of 802.3 wired LAN devices.

Let's break down each MAC address (six bytes) of each of the samples into bits, byte by byte, and look at the frequency of occurrence of the “1” bit in each of the 48 positions. If the bit is set in a completely arbitrary manner, then the probability of getting a “1” should be 50%.

Why such injustice in 7 and 8 bits? There are almost always zeros.

Indeed, the standard defines these bits as special (Wikipedia):

The eighth (from the beginning) bit of the first byte of the MAC address is called the Unicast/Multicast bit and determines what type of frame (frame) is transmitted with this address, regular (0) or broadcast (1) (multicast or broadcast). For normal, unicast network adapter communication, this bit is set to “0” in all packets sent to it.

The seventh (from the beginning) bit of the first byte of the MAC address is called the U/L (Universal/Local) bit and determines whether the address is globally unique (0), or locally unique (1). By default, all “manufacturer-stitched” addresses are globally unique, so the vast majority of collected MAC addresses contain the seventh bit set to “0”. In the table of assigned OUI identifiers, only about 130 entries have a U/L bit of “1”, and apparently these are blocks of MAC addresses for special needs.

From the sixth to the first bits of the first byte, the bits of the second and third bytes in the OUI identifiers, and even more so the bits in the 4-6 bytes of the address assigned by the manufacturer are distributed more or less evenly.

Thus, in the real MAC address of the network adapter, the bits are actually equivalent and have no technological meaning, with the exception of two service bits of the high byte.

Prevalence

Wondering which wireless equipment manufacturers are the most popular? Let's combine the search in the OUI database with the data from sample No. 1.

Practice shows that the more prosperous the contingent of wireless network subscribers in a given location, the greater the share of Apple devices.

Uniqueness

Are MAC addresses unique? In theory, yes, since each device manufacturer (MA block owner) is required to provide a unique address for each of the network adapters it produces. However, some chip manufacturers, namely:

• 00:0A:F5 Airgo Networks, Inc. (now Qualcomm)
• 00:08:22 InPro Comm (now MediaTek)

set the last three bytes of the MAC address to a random number, apparently after each device reboot. There were 82 thousand such addresses in my sample No. 1.

You can, of course, set yourself a foreign, non-unique address by purposefully setting it “like your neighbor’s”, identifying it with a sniffer, or choosing it at random. It is also possible to accidentally set yourself a non-unique address by, for example, restoring a backup configuration of a router like Mikrotik or OpenWrt.

What will happen if there are two devices on the network with the same MAC address? It all depends on the logic of the network equipment (wired router, wireless network controller). Most likely, both devices will either not work or will work intermittently. From the point of view of IEEE standards, protection against MAC address spoofing is proposed to be solved using, for example, MACsec or 802.1X.

What if you install a MAC with the seventh or eighth bit set to “1”, i.e. local or multicast address? Most likely, your network will not pay attention to this, but formally such an address will not comply with the standard, and it is better not to do so.

How randomization works

We know that in order to prevent tracking of people's movements by scanning and collecting airwaves, smartphone MAC operating systems have been using randomization technology for several years. Theoretically, when scanning the airwaves in search of known networks, the smartphone sends a packet (group of packets) of the 802.11 probe request type with the MAC address as the source:

Enabled randomization allows you to specify not the “stitched” one, but some other packet source address, changing with each scanning cycle, over time, or in some other way. Does it work? Let's look at the statistics of MAC addresses collected from the air by the so-called “Wi-Fi Radar”:

The picture is completely different.

The 8th bit of the first byte of the MAC address still corresponds to the Unicast nature of the SRC address in the probe request packet.

The 7th bit is set to Local in 92.2% of cases, i.e. With a fair degree of confidence, we can assume that exactly so many of the collected addresses are randomized, and less than 8% are real. In this case, the distribution of bits in the OUI for such real addresses approximately coincides with the data in the previous table.

Which manufacturer, according to the OUI, owns the randomized addresses (i.e. with the 7th bit in “1”)?

Moreover, all randomized addresses assigned to Google belong to the same OUI with the prefix DA:A1:19 . What is this prefix? Let's look at the Android sources.

private static final MacAddress BASE_GOOGLE_MAC = MacAddress.fromString("da:a1:19:0:0:0");

Stock Android uses a special, registered OUI when searching for wireless networks, one of the few with the seventh bit set.

Calculate real MAC from random one

Let's see there:

private static final long VALID_LONG_MASK = (1L << 48) - 1; private static final long LOCALLY_ASSIGNED_MASK = MacAddress.fromString("2:0:0:0:0:0").mAddr; private static final long MULTICAST_MASK = MacAddress.fromString("1:0:0:0:0:0").mAddr; public static @NonNULL MacAddress createRandomUnicastAddress(MacAddress base, Random r) { long addr; if (base == NULL) { addr = r.nextLong() & VALID_LONG_MASK; } else { addr = (base.mAddr & OUI_MASK) | (NIC_MASK & r.nextLong()); } addr |= LOCALLY_ASSIGNED_MASK; addr &= ~MULTICAST_MASK; MacAddress mac = new MacAddress(addr); if (mac.equals(DEFAULT_MAC_ADDRESS)) { return createRandomUnicastAddress(base, r); } return mac; }

The entire address, or its lower three bytes, is pure Random.nextLong(). “Proprietary recovery of real MAC” is a scam. With a high degree of confidence, we can expect that Android phone manufacturers use other, unregistered OUIs. We don’t have the iOS source code, but most likely a similar algorithm is used there.

The above does not cancel the work of other mechanisms for de-anonymizing Wi-Fi subscribers, based on the analysis of other fields of the probe request frame, or correlation of the relative frequency of requests sent by the device. However, reliably tracking a subscriber using external means is extremely problematic. The data collected will be more suitable for analyzing average/peak load by location and time, based on large numbers, without reference to specific devices and people. Only those “inside”, the mobile OS manufacturers themselves, and installed applications have accurate data.

What could be dangerous about someone else knowing your device's MAC address? Denial of service attacks can be launched for wired and wireless networks. For a wireless device, moreover, with some probability it is possible to record the moment of its appearance in the place where the sensor is installed. By spoofing the address, you can try to “pretend” to be your device, which can only work if no additional security measures are used (authorization and/or encryption). 99.9% of people here have nothing to worry about.

The MAC address is more complicated than it seems, but simpler than it could be.

French rifle MAS-36 | Weapons of World War II

The French MAS Modèle 36 rifle entered service in 1936 and replaced the Berthier and Lebel series of rifles. The weapon took an active part in the battlefields of World War II and was produced at MAS factories, as well as at several other state military enterprises.

Story

The MAS 36 was chambered for the new French 7.5x54 cartridge, which in turn was a shortened version of the 7.5x57mm MAS cartridge introduced in 1924. The need for a new smokeless powder cartridge arose because the previous 8mm cartridge from 1886 had an outdated rim design and was unreliable in use.

In creating the MAS 36 rifle, the designers of Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Etienne used the experience of the French army gained on the battlefields of the First World War. Experts borrowed some elements from the German Mauser, the American M1917 Enfield rifle and the British SMLE. Overall, the result was a reliable and unpretentious infantry weapon.

The new rifle was used along with the Berthier and Lebel rifles. Before the start of World War II, it was supplied to the French colonies, as well as to regular units. With the outbreak of war, MAS 36s were sent to advanced front-line units, while the obsolete Berthier and Lebel rifles remained for reservists and auxiliary units. In the Battle of France, Germany managed to capture a large number of rifles of this type. They were adopted with the Gewehr 242(f) index and were used in the German units that occupied France, and later were distributed to Volkssturm militia units.

In the post-war period, the MAS 36 rifle took part in local conflicts in the former colonial possessions of France, Indonesia and Argentina, as well as during the Suez crisis in 1956-1957.

Design

The rifle is equipped with a sliding bolt that is locked inside the receiver, behind the magazine. Due to the short stroke of the bolt, the developers gave its handle a concave shape to simplify movement when reloading. Like many other French models of those years, the MAS 36 did not have a safety mechanism. The soldier had to equip his weapon immediately before entering battle. However, the military blocked the mechanism by fixing the bolt handle in the middle position. A 17-inch bayonet was attached to the rifle.

Browning BAR M1918 (USA)

John Moses Browning began the development of an automatic rifle in 1917, at the request of the American military operating in Europe on the fields of the First World War. The main idea was to create an automatic weapon for infantry, suitable for firing in bursts from the shoulder and even from the hip during an attack, to create a high density of fire impact on the enemy. This idea turned out to be flawed, but Browning’s design, despite its shortcomings, turned out to be tenacious - it was in service with the US Army until the 1960s, and in some places even longer. It must be said that Browning was quite successful in his task - the M1918 series weapon was reliable, although labor-intensive to manufacture. Through the efforts of the Belgians from FN Herstal, the Browning design also became widespread in Europe, where before the Second World War it was in service in Belgium, Poland, and Sweden , Baltic countries.

However, the M1918 is inherently difficult to classify. Being too heavy for the original role of an automatic rifle (the M1918 is more than 2 times heavier than the M1 Garand rifle or any other army repeating rifle of that time), it, on the other hand, was not a full-fledged light machine gun - the small magazine capacity and non-replaceable barrel are to blame. In terms of firepower, the M1918 in all modifications was inferior to such models as the Degtyarev DP-27, ZB-26 or BREN. Nevertheless, it was a reliable weapon that provided increased firepower to the infantry squad and platoon, in which role it was used.