Beretta NARP Rifle: Specs, Price, and Italian Army Adoption

Beretta NARP is the New Assault Rifle Platform, a modular short-stroke piston rifle that Beretta Defense Technologies designed, developed, and manufactures in Italy for military and law enforcement forces. The select-fire service rifle is chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO, and Beretta also offers NARP in .300 Blackout and as the 6.5 Grendel NARP Praetorian. The 5.56 rifle pairs a short-stroke gas piston and rotating bolt with the M4 manual of arms: AR-style ambidextrous controls, an M4/M16 stock interface, and STANAG 4179 magazines, so troops trained on the M4 carbine pick it up without relearning the controls.

Beretta has developed the rifle since 2018, with a retired SAS veteran among the people involved, and gave it a world premiere at DSEI 2023 in London on September 12, 2023. NARP is the program name rather than a final model designation, and the Italian Army refers to the rifle as the Beretta NARP. The rifle is the first step of a new Beretta portfolio of service weapons and the successor to the ARX160 in Italian service.

The NARP runs a short-stroke gas piston: gas tapped from the barrel drives a piston that pushes the operating parts, instead of venting gas into the receiver the way a direct impingement M4 does. That keeps carbon and heat out of the bolt and fire control group. For the full trade-off in weight, cost, and cleaning, see our DI vs piston AR-15 guide.

The gas regulator has two positions, normal and suppressed, and the gas system opens from the front for cleaning without tools. Beretta launched the rifle alongside its B-Silent suppressor, made with additive manufacturing, and the 1/2x28 muzzle thread takes standard 5.56 muzzle devices. On a direct impingement AR-15, the same suppressed-fire tuning comes from an adjustable gas block.

Controls follow the M4 layout with full ambidexterity, and the magazine release is shielded against impacts. The charging handle is a non-reciprocating T-lever at the rear of the upper, so it works the same way as an M4 handle and stays still when the rifle fires. On the 5.56 service rifle the selector reads S/1/R, with 2- or 3-round burst available, and customers choose single- or two-stage triggers. The upper carries a full-length Picatinny rail with M-LOK slots on the sides and bottom of the handguard.

The NARP Praetorian is Beretta's 6.5 Grendel version of the NARP. BDT France first showed it at Milipol Paris 2025, and it was developed at the request of a French counter-terrorism unit that Beretta does not name. Swiss P developed three dedicated 6.5 Grendel loads for it: a 120-grain FMJ for general and precision use, a 120-grain armor-piercing round, and a 123-grain expanding Styx load.

Unlike the select-fire 5.56 service rifle, the Praetorian is semi-automatic, with a single-stage trigger. Beretta builds it for designated marksman and precision support roles, with a threaded barrel and a two-position gas system tuned for suppressed fire. It keeps the NARP's non-reciprocating T-lever and ambidextrous controls, and adds a folding, collapsible stock on an M4 tube interface, a removable forward assist, and an M4-compatible grip. Beretta shows it with the B-Silent suppressor.

The Italian Army began a phased roll-out of the NARP in the fourth quarter of 2025 to replace its in-service Beretta ARX160. Beretta Defense Technologies confirmed delivery of an initial contract for 7,000 rifles in 5.56x45mm NATO with 14.5-inch barrels, and the first deliveries went to special operations forces. NARP rifles were carried by troops at the Italian Army's 165th anniversary celebration in L'Aquila in May 2026.

Outside Italy, Beretta Defense Technologies has put the NARP forward for Project Grayburn, the British Army program to replace the SA80 rifle family, alongside Sako rifles from the same group. Beretta also confirmed at Enforce Tac 2026 that a 7.62x51mm NATO configuration is under development.

The Beretta NARP has no public price. Beretta sells it to military and law enforcement agencies under contracts like the Italian Army's initial 7,000-rifle order, and it publishes no unit price or MSRP, and with no civilian version there is no retail price either.

No. As of September 2026 Beretta has not announced a civilian or US commercial NARP. The 5.56 service rifle is select-fire, and federal law bars civilian transfer of machine guns manufactured after May 19, 1986. The semi-automatic 6.5 Grendel Praetorian is built for military and law enforcement units, not the civilian market.

The nearest civilian relative is the Beretta Titan, a one-off semi-automatic rifle Beretta unveiled in May 2026 for its 500th anniversary. It takes cues from NARP, including the short-stroke piston and adjustable gas, and shares the Praetorian's 6.5 Grendel chambering, but it has a titanium upper and magnesium lower, and it is not for sale.

For a 5.56 carbine you can buy today, our best AR-15 rifles guide ranks the current options, including piston models, and the rifle builder can put together a suppressor-ready 14.5-inch build with parts that fit.

The NARP's design choices favor reliability. The short-stroke piston keeps propellant gas out of the receiver, the two-position regulator handles the extra backpressure of suppressed fire, the gas system and pins come apart without tools, and the magazine release is protected against impacts. Beretta designed the rifle to perform in very cold and very hot temperatures and in mud and dust, and the Italian Army accepted it as its general-issue rifle after a development program that started in 2018. Beretta has not published round-count or endurance test results for the NARP.