FBP
 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry |
|
| Founded | 1718 AN |
| Headquarters |
 Parap, Wechua Nation |
| Key people |
|
| Products |
|
| Revenue | 3.8 billion écus (1757 AN) |
Fábrica de Balística Parap (FBP) is a New Alexandrian arms manufacturer specializing in infantry small arms, towed and light artillery, and military munitions. Headquartered in Parap, the capital of the Wechua Nation, the company supplies the Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie, equips the Federation's uniformed civil services, and maintains a presence in the domestic sporting and civilian firearms market. Within the New Alexandrian defense industry, FBP holds the infantry-weapons and ordnance niche, complementing the armored-vehicle focus of Rimarima Armaments rather than competing with it.
The firm was established in 1718 AN through the merger of Collado-Ruiz Armas, a small-arms workshop, and Ferrer-Ordóñez Fábrica de Artillería, an artillery foundry. Its emblem depicts a fortress cannon in tribute to La Gran Anciana, a historic gun preserved at the Citadel of Parap. FBP won its first contract with the Federal Forces in the year of its founding and built its early reputation on the M355 Alba light howitzer, which it later licensed for export to the Suren Confederacy.
Over the following decades the company grew from a regional supplier into the Federation's principal dedicated small-arms and munitions house. Under the industrial mobilization framework of Force 1760, the company is designated a rapid-surge supplier of infantry weapons and ammunition. It remains privately held and is led by its founder and chief executive, David Collado, a former army captain.
History
FBP traces its origins to two Parap firms that merged in 1718 AN, and its history since has followed the Federation's shift from a young country arming itself to a mature defense economy organized for industrial readiness.
Foundation and early contracts (1718-1725)
FBP was formed in 1718 AN by the merger of two established Parap firms: Collado-Ruiz Armas, which produced service pistols and rifles, and Ferrer-Ordóñez Fábrica de Artillería, a foundry with a long record of casting field guns for the militias of the Wechua Nation. The union brought small-arms and artillery expertise under a single roof and gave the new company the industrial base to bid for national contracts. David Collado, a former captain in the Wechua forces and a partner in Collado-Ruiz Armas, became its first chief executive and remains in the post.
The company's first contract, signed with the Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie in 1718 AN, called for the development of artillery, grenades, and infantry weapons. Its early flagship was the M355 Alba, a 105-millimeter light towed howitzer that entered federal service after trials and was licensed for export to the Suren Confederacy, where 2,050 were delivered to the Ēurān Forces of the Home Guard between 1721 AN and 1722 AN. The same customer purchased 10,000 FBP RAP rifles in 1722 AN. These orders established FBP as a credible supplier of both artillery and small arms and funded the expansion of its production.
Growth into a national supplier (1725-1750)
Through the second quarter of the century FBP concentrated on the infantry and ordnance segments that larger contractors treated as secondary. While Javelin Industries pursued aerospace and missiles and Rimarima Armaments specialized in armored vehicles, FBP positioned itself as the Federation's dedicated maker of the soldier's individual weapon and the ammunition and munitions consumed in the field. The company standardized several of its small arms and grenade families for federal issue and secured a share of the civilian and uniformed-services market for pistols and ammunition.
This period also brought the company into a lasting rivalry with Javelin Industries over towed artillery, most visibly in a dispute over the resemblance between FBP's M355 Alba and Javelin's M1681 105-millimeter howitzer. No legal action followed, and the two guns went on to serve side by side in the Ēurān Forces of the Home Guard, but the episode marked FBP's determination to hold the light-artillery niche against a far larger competitor.
Modernization under Force 1760 (1750 to present)
The Force 1752 initiative and its successor Force 1760 reoriented federal procurement toward readiness and a resilient industrial base. FBP, though smaller than the prime contractors named in those programs, gained a defined role through the Industrial Readiness and Mobilization Plan adopted in 1758 AN, which classifies the company as a rapid-surge supplier of infantry weapons and small-arms ammunition. The designation formalized a capability FBP had maintained since its founding and secured its place in the modernized defense sector.
The company has since recapitalized its infantry-weapons catalog, introducing a modular service-rifle family and expanding its mortar and munitions production, while continuing to supply and support its towed-artillery lines.
Corporate structure
FBP is organized into five operating divisions:
- The Small Arms Division develops service rifles, sidearms, machine guns, and the civilian and sporting lines.
- The Artillery and Mortars Division builds towed and light howitzers, pack and mountain guns, and mortar systems.
- The Munitions and Ordnance Division manufactures grenades, demolition stores, and artillery projectiles.
- The Ammunition Division produces small-arms ammunition and forms the core of the company's mobilization role.
- The Civil and Sporting Division serves the commercial and uniformed-services market for pistols, rifles, and ammunition.
The company's operations are concentrated in and around Parap, with the principal works adjoining the historic arsenal at the Citadel of Parap and additional plants elsewhere in the Wechua Nation.
Facilities
FBP's headquarters and main small-arms works occupy the industrial quarter beside the Citadel of Parap, on ground the company has held since its founding. The Ferrer-Ordóñez foundry, absorbed in the 1718 AN merger, remains in operation as the artillery works and casts barrels, breeches, and projectile bodies. A separate ammunition plant on the outskirts of Parap houses the high-throughput lines that underpin the company's mobilization role, and a proving ground in the surrounding highlands is used for weapons and munitions testing across the range of terrain and altitude found in the Wechua Nation. The company operates a smaller assembly and finishing plant serving the civil and sporting market.
Role in the defense industrial base
FBP matters to the New Alexandrian defense industry for what it makes rather than how much. Infantry weapons and, above all, small-arms ammunition are consumed in quantity and cannot be improvised quickly, so the ability to surge their production is treated as a strategic capability. The Industrial Readiness and Mobilization Plan adopted under Force 1760 in 1758 AN designates FBP a rapid-surge (MR-30) supplier, expected to expand output within thirty days of mobilization from warm lines and maintained stockpiles. The surge role gives the company a weight in the defense industrial base beyond its size.
The company is accredited under the New Alexandrian Defense Certification Accreditation Program and holds standing federal contracts for the supply of infantry weapons, grenades, and ammunition. Its Munitions and Ordnance Division has sought subcontract work supplying conventional projectile bodies and propellant charges in support of the artillery-munitions efforts pursued under Programa Ayar, the 1758 AN federal land-systems and precision-fires program, positioning FBP as a second source in a segment otherwise dominated by the larger land contractors.
Products
FBP's catalog spans infantry small arms, towed and light artillery, and the munitions and ammunition that are the company's highest-volume output.
Small arms
| Name | Type | Status | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FBP AR-40 'Halcón' | 6.5 mm modular assault rifle | In service (1754 AN) | Current standard service rifle; modular receiver with configurable barrel and optics rails. | |
| FBP RAP | 7.62 mm assault rifle | In service (1719 AN) |  |
Long-serving service rifle; retained for second-line and reserve issue. |
| FBP TE-2 'Puna' | 7.62 mm designated marksman rifle | In service (1752 AN) | Semi-automatic evolution of the FBP TE for the squad marksman role. | |
| FBP TE | 7.8 mm bolt-action rifle | In service (1718 AN) |  |
Original precision rifle; a sporting variant is sold commercially. |
| FBP AL | 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun | In service (1719 AN) |  |
Standard belt-fed support weapon. |
| FBP AL-L 'Ligero' | 5.56 mm squad automatic weapon | In service (1755 AN) | Lightweight magazine- or belt-fed automatic for the fire team. | |
| FBP PDW 'Vizcacha' | 5.7 mm personal defense weapon | In service (1756 AN) | Compact weapon for vehicle crews and rear-echelon personnel. | |
| FBP 520 | 9 mm semi-automatic pistol | In service (1718 AN) |  |
Standard sidearm; widely issued to the uniformed civil services. |
| FBP 1880 | 12-gauge pump-action shotgun | In service (1718 AN) |  |
Breaching and close-quarters use. |
Artillery and mortars
| Name | Type | Status | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M355 'Alba' | 105 mm light towed howitzer | In service (1719 AN); exported |  |
The company's founding flagship; licensed for export to the Suren Confederacy. |
| M480 'Rompevientos' | 155 mm towed howitzer | In service (1721 AN) | File:M777.jpg | Standard medium towed gun of the Federal Forces' light formations. |
| M362 'Sillar' | 105 mm pack howitzer | In service (1748 AN) | Breaks down for transport in the mountainous terrain of the Wechua Nation. | |
| M120 'Trueno' | 120 mm mortar | In service (1740 AN) | Towed or vehicle-mounted; battalion fire support. | |
| M81 'Chispa' | 81 mm mortar | In service (1735 AN) | Standard infantry mortar. | |
| M60 'Aguijón' | 60 mm mortar | In service (1735 AN) | Company-level and light-role weapon. |
Guided fires
FBP's principal venture beyond tube artillery was the Terremoto missile program. The STS120 Terremoto, trialed at the company's founding, was developed into the S-8 M1718 Terremoto for the Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie under a 1718 AN federal requirement specification. The result was a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 300 kilometers, delivered as a four-cell containerized system that could be moved by standard cargo truck, rail, or ship. The S-8 saw combat in Operation Purple Shroud, where it was used against the leadership of the Confederacy of the Dispossessed in the first Federal Forces strike with a ground-launched precision munition against a target tracked by surveillance assets in real time. The program remains FBP's only guided-weapon line; the company has not pursued the broader missile market held by Javelin Industries.
Munitions and ammunition
FBP produces a standardized family of hand grenades for the Federal Forces, comprising the M12 fragmentation, M15 high-explosive, M38 stun, M40 incendiary, M55 anti-tank, and M88 white-phosphorus smoke grenades. The Munitions and Ordnance Division also manufactures 40-millimeter grenades in high-explosive, smoke, and illumination natures, and casts and fills 105-millimeter and 155-millimeter artillery projectiles for its own guns and for federal stocks.
Small-arms ammunition is the company's highest-volume product and the foundation of its mobilization role. FBP manufactures the Federation's standard rifle, machine-gun, and pistol cartridges, and it maintains the reserve capacity required of a rapid-surge supplier under the Industrial Readiness and Mobilization Plan.
Research and development
FBP invests a smaller share of revenue in research than the aerospace and armored-vehicle primes, and concentrates it where an infantry-weapons house can lead. The company's recent effort centered on the modular AR-40 Halcón program, which produced the current service rifle and a common receiver shared across several of its small arms. A second line of work addresses ammunition and propellants, where the company's mobilization role depends on producing cartridges at high volume and consistent quality. FBP's highland proving ground near Parap supports testing across the terrain and altitude of the Wechua Nation, and the company maintains research partnerships with the Royal University of Parap for materials and ballistics work.
Controversies
FBP's growth has drawn periodic criticism over labor and environmental questions. A wage dispute at the company's ammunition plant led to a strike in 1741 AN, resolved after several weeks with revised pay scales and new safety commitments. The plant later faced scrutiny over propellant-waste handling, and following a federal citation in 1746 AN the company installed new treatment systems and brought its emissions within regulatory limits. As a supplier of small arms to the civilian market, FBP has also been drawn into federal debates over private firearms ownership, though its civilian sales remain lawful and regulated.
