R, noun2

/ɑː(r)/
The eighteenth letter of the alphabet, combined with various numbers to denote military rifles of local manufacture.
a. R1: The name given to the Belgian automatic F.N. (7,62mm) assault rifle when manufactured locally. Also attributive.
1971 F.V. Lategan in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. IV. 532The..series of ‘short Lee Enfields’..was partly replaced by the Belgian automatic F.N. (7.62 mm Cal.) in 1961, which shortly afterwards was manufactured as the R.1, the military rifle of the Republic of South Africa.
1986 S. Sepamla Third Generation 115The number of policemen carrying R1 rifles was enough to discourage the monkeying around one sometimes sees at such large gatherings.
1988 Frontline Feb. 27The South African conscript is forced into one side of a civil war situation where he is seen by the South Africans and Namibians he faces from behind the R1 barrel as part of a force upholding apartheid.
1991 Natal Witness 27 Mar. 2Police have arrested a white man armed with a R1-rifle and ammunition in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township.
1992 C.M. Knox tr. of E. Van Heerden’s Mad Dog 151The Leader climbs out (the slap of palms against R-1s from the present-arms squad tells us that).
b. R4: A 5,56mm military assault rifle (see Paratus quot. 1979).
1979 Paratus May 1The development of a new rifle, dictated by the needs of modern warfare. It is a 5,56 mm rifle, known as the R4. Other specifications include: Weight — 4,3 kg, length — 970 mm (stock extended) 740 mm (stock folded); length of barrel — 460 mm. The rifle is gas-operated with a rotating bolt. Magazines: 35 rounds (standard). Cyclic rate of fire: 650 rounds a minute; maximum effective range: 600m.
1979 Evening Post 10 May 3The new R4 assault rifle..would replace the R1 rifle in particular fields only and not entirely.
1986 Sunday Times 16 Mar. 14The R4 assault rifle..is said to incorporate the best elements of the Israeli Galil and the Soviet AK-47, topped by improvements to suit local bush conditions. It is an addition to the R1 rifle and is of 5,56 mm calibre.
1991 N. Mbatha in Pace Feb. 41Most taxi drivers are armed, not only with primitive weapons like knives, pangas or axes, but with increasingly sophisticated weapons like AK-47 and R4 rifles in some cases.
1992 Natal Witness 6 Nov. 3Three of them had firearms — an AK47, an R1 and an R4.
c. R5: A 5.56mm assault rifle with folding stock, a short-barrelled version of the R4. Also attributive.
1986 G. Cawthra Brutal Force 2565,56mm R5 SA (Isr.)
1986 G. Cawthra Brutal Force 269Short-barrelled version of the R4 used by the SA Air Force and for urban operations.
1988 M. Nel in Personality 18 July 12Bruce puts on headphones, loads an R5 rifle and points it at a tin centimetres away from the muzzle.
1990 Armed Forces Nov. 24 (caption)Members of the Battalion bearing the R5 rifle with folding butt.
1993 Sunday Times 10 Oct. 7Right-wingers, three of them national servicemen, made off with at least 20 R5 rifles, 20 shotguns and 30 South African-made Z88 9mm pistols.
The eighteenth letter of the alphabet, combined with various numbers to denote military rifles of local manufacture.
R1:The name given to the Belgian automatic F.N. (7,62mm) assault rifle when manufactured locally. Also attributive.
R4:A 5,56mm military assault rifle (see Paratus quot. 1979).
R5:A 5.56mm assault rifle with folding stock, a short-barrelled version of the R4. Also attributive.
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