Re: British Special Forces small arms 2017
Why don't British Special Forces, and associated units, use the L85A2 SA80?
Well, these days it is not reliability, and certainly not accuracy, the SA80 A2 performs very well under all conditions. The main reason it is not used is that the L85A2 SA80 is a very bloody heavy assault rifle and that weight, as it is a bull pup design, is mostly towards the rear of the weapon.
The L85A2 SA80 A2, with loaded 30 round magazine, and optic sight, weighs 4.98kg (just about 11 lbs).
The L119A2 Colt Canada, with loaded 30 round magazine, and optic sight, weighs 3.9kg (just over 8.5 lbs).
That is a big difference for a soldier to carry around constantly and, of course, on operations a good soldier never, ever, leaves his rifle.
My first, much loved, British Army rifle, in the early 1980's, was a L1A1 SLR (that example a beautiful older rifle with wooden furniture, that I was genuinely fond of) and that weighed, with a full 20 round 7.62mm magazine, 4.96kg (or well under 11lbs)...
Last edited by IronDuke99; January 18th, 2017 at 12:37 AM..
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