Intro
Some may be familiar with Armalite, a division of what was Fairchild Corporation (prime contractor/maker of the most awesome A-10 Warthog) and one of their most famous designer, Eugene Stoner, inventor of the AR-10 in .308 and the scaled down 5.56 AR-15 platform. When Stoner left Armalite (w/the AR-15/M-16) and the smaller caliber battle rifle gaining acceptance worldwide, Armalite designed an easy to produce 5.56 rifle based on the AR-15 but simpler.
That design was the AR-18 (AKA in Ireland as "the widowmaker") and it did not do well in sales. Armalite sold licenses to Howa of Japan and Sterling in UK.

Design features included a piston action so the stock could be folded (unlike the AR-15), a different notch in the magazine release (bad move), stampings instead of forgings and a proprietary sighting bracket for attachments (also a bad move).

AR-18s worked well, accurate, lightweight but were quite overshadowed by the more plentiful (and more expensive) AR-15 platform. Singapore was the only country to adopt a similar AR-18-type rifle.

The AR-180B corrects (IMO) the errors of the AR-18. The magazine is the same as AR-15 (no special notch), the reciever has been re-done in high grade polymer and rated to take years of service.

Weight: 6 lbs. Barrel is 20 inches and accuracy is quite good,certainly for combat. The one flaw: for some reason, all 3 of mine will strip and shoot 29 rounds from a 30 rd magazine. That last round doesn't quite get there. No problem from 20 rd mags so far.

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