South African Vektor R1 Socket Bayonet for the FN FAL

Tubular steel one-piece bayonet with flash ports and spear-pointed blade with semicircular profile. Blade length 6½ inches (16.5cm), 11 3/8 inches (28.9cm) overall. Black nylon plastic scabbard with frog hook, steel universal-type throat piece and ball finial, green canvas frog with belt loop and retaining loop.

The base of the socket is stamped with the serial number ‘293233’.

The Vektor R1 was the South African version of the FN FAL battle rifle chambered in the new NATO standard 7.62x51mm round. It was produced under license by the Lyttleton Engineering Works and formally adopted in 1960. The rifles and bayonets were each serial numbered, the first production rifle being numbered 200001.

The R1 was declared militarily obsolete in the late 1990s, and the South African Army destroyed its stocks of R1 rifles in 2001, which at that time numbered 206,454. Surviving examples remain in service with the South African Police and National Parks rangers, and a number that were exported in the 1970s to what was Rhodesia have been sold as surplus.