In the Alternate Cold War where 5.56 is never adopted, post-war bolt actions are adopted and developed for a myirad of reasons. Immediatedly after the war, As the FAL and other semiautos are developed and production ramped up, there are not enough to go around.
In order to prevent logistical problems around ammo supply, existing WWII rifles were converted to 7.62x51. This solved systemic issues, but the converstions were finicky, often done on worn guns by subcontractors, were difficult and unique to accessorize and needed their own additional equipment. The SMLEs required new magaziens and other modifications, confiscated Kar98k's were generally well worn and needed whole new barrels. 1903s and 1917s and other .30-06 bolt- actions would get a chamber sleeve and a magazine block. The best of them, M1 Garands, needed an entirely different clip then the standard 10 round stripper clip to operate, limiting the advantage of ammunition commonality.
Alongside the redeployment of SMGs, NATO forces take a page from the French book and develop a low-cost, low weight bolt action rifle for rear line troops and combat specialists. Artillery troops, logistics, early Grenadiers, snipers, and others who would have a full-size rifle, but weren't on the front lines.
Built from a new reciever up, this rifle was designed to be modular and inexpensive. To continue standardization, it takes the FAL magazine, although 5 and 10 round versions are standard issue. A stripper clip guide is included to minimize the number of mags needed to be carried, and of course rounds can be fed from the top singly. A simple aperture sight of the same pattern of the FAL was installed. The reciever has a standarized scope mount on the side of the reciever, able to use any optic that the other rifles, and machineguns use. The bolt handle is angled down to allows clearance for optics and reduce width.
The butstock and forearm are modular. There are traditional semi-pistol grip full stocks and steel folding stocks available. Later, a full stock with pistolgrip and an adjustable stock with cheekrest are added as well. There are several versions of the folding stock developed, but one that folds to the left side with a rubber buttpad becomes the standard. The forearm could be a simple, lightweight perforated metal tube, a traditional wooden top and bottom handguard set or a bipod specific free-floating forend.
Barrels are standarized sporter weight, just short of 18" (450mm), with iron front sight post, bayonet lug, and user-changable muzzle device. A bare muzzle is standard, but a rifle grenade-launching flashhider, Blank adapter, silencer, and lightweight conical flashider were available for different configurations.
The modularity allows for flexibility in the field, but several standard configruations were issued.
The standard configuration is a traditional buttstock and wodden forend with no optic or muzzle device. These would be the Mod0 versions that all other designs derive from. Most often found in training, guard and ceremonial roles, they were issued with 3 10-round magazines and a cartridge pouch belt for stripper clips. Standard Operating Procedure was to load from 10-round stripper clips, and hold the 2 loaded magazines in reserve.
In the early era of standarization on the 7.62 cartridge, NATO wanted to use rifle grenades to enable every rifleman to be a grenadier. Early semi-autos had problems launching grenades, with gas cutoff valves that needed adjusting and often self-disassembling or even being damaged by the force of firing. The grenadier role in the squad was to handle most of the grenade launching, with other troops having the capacity for emergencies.
The Grenadier would have the standard stripperclip cartridge belt and 3 magazines, and 2 special 5-round blank adapted magazines to swap between for grenade launching. The rifle would always be equipped with a traditional butstock and started with the wooden top & bottom forearm, but transitioned to the lighter perferated tube forend later. There was always a grenade launching muzzle device and a special sight that worked for both indirect fire and direct fire grenades. Additionally, an optional enhanced recoil pad was available as well.
As the 40mm grenade was adopted, the Grenadier rifle becasme a secondline option and was eventually absorbed back into the armory as key parts for other configurations. The righe grenade launching sight, flashhider and recoilpad were widely distributed to standard FALs and other guns.
The sniper rifle as issued has a traditional buttstock and a special bipod forend. A supressor and magnified optic scope round out the standard build. However, snipers are generally allowed a little leeway and often modified their buttstocks with cheekrests, monopods and some times entirely new stocks. Snipers generally cannot use the stripper clips to fill the magazine in place, so they are issued 4 unblocked 5-round and 3 standard 10-round magaizes to facilitate rapid reloading.
A sub-variant is the Designated Marksman's rifle. These are more widespread then the sniper and less likely to be customized. Consisting of a traditional stock, lightweight tube forend, conical flashhider and a lower magnification optic then the snipers recived. These troops would be issued 7 10 round magazines and would often supplement that with full-sized FAL magazines. Snipers are specialists with extra training, attached at the Company level. In contrast, these rifles would be issued to competent shooters organically at the squad or platoon level with no additional training.
The Low-Profile configuration was designed for logistics, artilery and other troops that needed a rifle but needed one that wouldn't get in the way. These were built with the lightweight perferated handguards and folding stocks, using the conical flashhiders to try and make them easier for the troops to shoot when they had to.
As the sub-machinegun program ramped up, many of these would be replaced with SMGs, but not all. Often second line and support troops that weren't tightly strapped for space would be issued SMGs and Low-Profile rifles about equally.
As time went on and lightweight, low magnification optics were adopted, they were often added to this configuration. In addtion to reserve troops, this style was a favorite of NCOs, scouts, loaders and other specialists. While the traditional load is 3 10-round magazines and a cartridge belt, this is the most likely build to be paired with FAL magazines and/or to carry more magazines.
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