Assault rifle (Fallout 4)

The assault rifle is a weapon in Fallout 4.

Background
A peculiar, antiquated design, the assault rifle has much more in common with pre-War machine guns than rifles. Fed from a side-mounted magazine, this gas-operated weapon is unique in that it uses a water-cooled jacket that shrouds the barrel and maintains its temperature under sustained fire, pumped using liquid stored in the weapon's stock. It includes a charging handle on the right and a carry handle on the top, all fashioned out of durable wood. All elements considered, the "assault rifle" appears to simply be a repurposed surplus light machine gun, rather than an assault rifle.

Characteristics
A good, solid weapon, hampered by one thing: the lack of a steady supply of 5.56mm ammunition. However, with a generous line of modifications, it can be very useful in the long term. Even with an automatic receiver, it maintains a steady line of fire and can be improved even more upon with the use of other modifications.

Crafting
With the Contraptions Workshop add-on, assault rifles can be manufactured using a weapon forge.

Modificationss
All numbers are relative to the base stats.

Locations

 * Vendors
 * Fairly commonly sold by all vendors across the Commonwealth.

Behind the scenes

 * As mentioned directly in The Art of Fallout 4, the assault rifle actually is a repurposed machinegun: All of its assets are stored in MachineGun folder, its meshes are named MachineGun or MG. The actual assault rifle folder contains a prototype, prop model of the Chinese assault rifle.
 * The assault rifle was also a test bed for the modding system of Fallout 4 as it was built to be with interchangeable model parts. The system was limited at first, but was later expanded as the modding system became more flexible.
 * "Assault rifle" is a generic term that could apply equally to many rifles in the game.