The history of the productive place of Terni is connected to the development of the musket, the long gun supplied to the Italian Army since 1871. After the Unification of Italy, there was the need to substitute the obsolete rifles with more modern breech-loading rifles.
For the production of the new rifles a specific establishment was built in a place easy to defend and with energy; Terni responded to both requirements because it was far from the sea and the borders and it has covered by large quantities of water.
In 1875, when the foundation stone was laid, the electric energy was not used for industrial purpose and the Nobel's experiments have not lead up to the invention of the ballistic yet (1887).
The project and the production cycle of the rifles produced in Terni took advantage of those new inventions and led up to the realization of the Moschetto 91, the long gun used until the end of the Second World War.
A the end of the conflict, the Royal Factory of Weapons became Light Armament Military Establishment, for the modification of the Garand semiautomatic rifles supplied to Italy by the Marshall Plan and then for repairing the automatic rifle FAL BM59.