Originally Posted by BritinAfrica

I've never liked the layout of a bullpup rifle, the British SA80 cannot be fired left handed unlike the L1A1.

We had a couple of L85A3s for testing and it seemed decent but H&K have put a fair bit of time bringing it up to spec.

Originally Posted by MontyB

We had a couple of L85A3s for testing and it seemed decent but H&K have put a fair bit of time bringing it up to spec.

If I remember correctly when the SA80 was used in the first IRAQ war it failed miserably, a signal was sent to dispatch the L1A1's in storage to the units in country.

A friend of the family worked on the rifle, during system checks he walked into his bosses office and basically told him the pile of sh!te will nevber work properly. He was told its now political they have got to get the rifle working despite being well over budget. In my opinion a far better rifle would be the M16A3/M16A4.

Originally Posted by BritinAfrica

If I remember correctly when the SA80 was used in the first IRAQ war it failed miserably, a signal was sent to dispatch the L1A1's in storage to the units in country.

A friend of the family worked on the rifle, during system checks he walked into his bosses office and basically told him the pile of sh!te will nevber work properly. He was told its now political they have got to get the rifle working despite being well over budget. In my opinion a far better rifle would be the M16A3/M16A4.

I am not sure, once the L85 was adopted the cost of reequipping the military with an entirely different rifle would have been prohibitive and adopting another nations equipment has a whole range of problems in itself.
I think they have made the right choice in persisting with it, the A3 model doesn't appear to be a bad weapon and there are certainly worse choices out there.

Originally Posted by MontyB

I am not sure, once the L85 was adopted the cost of reequipping the military with an entirely different rifle would have been prohibitive and adopting another nations equipment has a whole range of problems in itself.
I think they have made the right choice in persisting with it, the A3 model doesn't appear to be a bad weapon and there are certainly worse choices out there.

The SAS wont use the SA80 and if I remember correctly the Royal Marines didnt want it either but were lumbered with it. Perhaps Cabbage head can confirm or deny.

If Britain stopped funding despotic countries like Zimbabwe, South Africa and the like of CAR, they could issue a M16A3/M16A4 to all the services and still have money over. It wouldnt be beyond the realms of possibility to get the tooling and build the rifle themselves, as they did with the FN FAL