In 2006, the MoD indicated that it expected the SA80 to remain in service until 2020, although the procurement process would start earlier in order to have a replacement in service by that time. The MoD therefore requested tenders for a new Modular Assault Rifle System (MARS) in 2012, expecting the first weapons to be in service by 2014 and general issue in 2020. The specification was for a straightforward 5.56mm assault rifle, and the timescales effectively limited entries to weapons already available ‘off the shelf’, rather than anything developed to order. The replacement project was cancelled in 2014/15, however, in favour of using 3D printing technology to produce new replacement parts – notably the trigger mechanism housing (lower body), this being a stamped component which could not otherwise be economically produced in small volumes. Such components are not cheap – the 3D printers are million-pound industrial units using titanium oxide, rather than office models, and are printing individual components, rather than complete weapons – but the process has potentially eliminated shortages of critical spares for the foreseeable future.
In the meantime, the SA80 will form the base weapon for the Future Integrated Soldier Technology (FIST) programme. This will deliver various improvements, starting with lightening the weapon by using replacement components made from carbon fibre and titanium. Possible further enhancements include an improved UGL sight module, full-length top rails to enable optics to be swapped out quickly, and powered rails which would allow all the devices on the rifle (along with the soldier’s radio and night-vision aids) to be powered from a central power pack, thus saving weight over each device having individual batteries. More speculative ideas include a weapon-mounted camera linked to a helmet-mounted sight unit, which would allow soldiers to deliver aimed fire around corners and over cover without exposing themselves, and longer, higher-velocity rounds to extend the range of the UGL.
CONCLUSION
The SA80 concept had some interesting technical ideas, and succeeded in getting a full-length rifle barrel into an extremely compact weapon. Some of the criticism of it has been unfair. Complaints regarding its hitting power, in particular, have tended to cherry-pick the things the previous 7.62×51mm round did well, while glossing over its disadvantages. Had a few things happened differently – if the MoD hadn’t cancelled the left-handed conversion kit, and had acted more promptly in addressing the initial issues with the weapon, instead of denying there was a problem for more than a decade – then the L85 might have given solid service as a rifle, with its early ‘teething troubles’ forgotten like those of the M16. ‘Might-have-beens’ are exactly that, however, and the reality is that the weapon was – and remains – tainted by a reputation for poor reliability that overrides any appreciation of its real virtues.
The procurement process for the SA80 was opaque and apparently dominated first by a concern with ‘buying British’ rather than ‘buying the best’, then by an unwillingness to admit previous mistakes. Ironically, the high cost of fixing the problems that were a consequence of the corner-cutting undertaken to keep the original price down meant that the SA80 ultimately proved more expensive than any of its competitors. Even the Defence Select Committee report (1993) expressed the view that the SA80 ‘was delivered late, and had many defects that in our view should have been detected and put right before it entered service’ and that the MoD took far too long to address and resolve the weapon’s initial flaws.
The LSW looked like a good idea on paper, and had it been issued as a ‘heavy automatic rifle’ to supplement the GPMG in each section, it might have been well received; but it was too compromised by the need to maintain commonality with the rifle to really be a capable replacement for the GPMG, leaving it as a weapon without a role.
Despite its significant initial flaws, the L85 gave decent service once these were finally resolved. It has now been the British Army’s primary rifle for more than three decades, and few serving soldiers can remember anything else. More importantly, those years have seen the Army involved in the heaviest fighting it has experienced since the Korean War in the early 1950s, with a decade of more or less continuous combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although it is likely to remain in service for another decade at least, the SA80 is almost certain to be the last wholly British-produced rifle purchased and used by Britain’s armed forces.
THE SA80 EXPOSED
1. Flash eliminator
2. Barrel
3. Gas block and front iron sight mount
4. Gas plug
5. Gas cylinder
6. SUSAT sight unit
7. Vertical adjusting nut
8. Cheek piece
9. Butt pad
10. Sling mount
11. Magazine
12. Magazine release catch
13. Retaining pin
14. Pistol grip
15. Trigger
16. Handguard
17. Sling mount
18. Gas vent
19. Safety catch
20. Gas piston
21. Gas piston spring
22. Barrel
23. Horizontal adjusting screws
24. Cartridge in chamber
25. Firing pin
26. Bolt
27. Bolt carrier
28. Safety sear
29. Hammer
30. Recoil spring
31. Recoil guide rods
32. Bolt release catch
33. Trigger bar spring
34. Interceptor sear
35. Main sear
36. Retaining pin
37. Barrel extension
38. Bullet
39. Trigger bar
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anonymous (2002a). ‘Questions asked about reliability of SA80-A2’, in Soldier Magazine, August 2002: 7.
Anonymous (2002b). ‘Big guns back SA80-A2’, in Soldier Magazine, November 2002: 12–13.
Beattie MC, Doug (2009). Task Force Helmand: Life, Death & Combat on the Afghan Front Line. London: Pocket Books.
Blakeley, David (2012). Pathfinder: A Special Forces Mission Behind Enemy Lines. London: Orion.