An Armalite rifle is one of a series of rifles made by the ArmaLite company, or more generally a rifle based on one of their designs, such as the M16 rifle. Eugene Stoner, Jacques Michault, Melvin Johnson, Robert Fremont and Jim Sullivan are some of the designers credited with their development. In the United States, these rifles are generally known by their model numbers. The AR before the model number stands for "ArmaLite Rifle".