A new assault rifle for the Australian Defense Force is entering low-rate production under a Department of Defense contract.

The weapon by Thales Australia is the F90, a lightweight 5.56mm rifle that recently achieved Provisional Design Acceptance following an extensive testing period.

The rifle is in a bull-pup design, has an open architecture that incorporates a NATO tri-rail system and an integrated side-loading 40mm grenade launcher that can be rapidly attached.

"This is a major milestone in the F90 story," said Kevin Wall, Vice President Armaments at Thales Australia.

"Backed by over a century of military weapons experience, Thales's Lithgow (Australia) facility will now begin manufacturing F90 rifles as part of a de-risking exercise designed to smooth the transition in production from the existing in-service weapon to the F90."

Thales said the F90 is based on the F88 rifle, a licensed copy of the Austrian Steyr AUG rifle, now used by Australian troops, and will come in five variants, including a marksman model with a longer barrel and a carbine variant for close combat.

Details of the low-rate production contract, such as value and number of units to be made, were not disclosed.