From: RustyBullethole, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Times 7.8.00
Troubled Army rifle gets thumbs down from SAS
BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR
THE SAS is to buy a new assault weapon to replace its
favourite American M16 rifle, but will insist that it be
spared having to use a version of the troubled SA80 rifle
used by the rest of the Army, despite claims that the SA80's
problems are a thing of the past.
Two hundred thousand of the SA80s, which have been
criticised ever since they first came into service in 1985,
are being extensively modified at a cost of L80 million
but although the much-modified SA80 is supposed to have
overcome all the problems highlighted by British soldiers
in successive campaigns - the Gulf War in 1991, Kosovo last
year and Sierra Leone in May - it is not expected to be
given a second thought by the British Army's most elite
regiment.
A week ago the modified SA80 rifle and light support
weapon derivative surpassed expectations during endurance
trials by an Army team at Warminster in Wiltshire, when
each gun tested fired 15,000 rounds through new barrels
without mishap.
A British Army firearms expert said that normal
weapons trials involved firing only 10,000 rounds.
"It proved that the modified SA80 is going to be an
excellent rifle and one of the most reliable weapons of
its type," the officer said.
It was the Special Air Service, with the Parachute
Regiment, that first complained of the SA80 when they
tested it in the 1980s. They reported that the rifle
jammed in dusty conditions. The SAS subsequently spurned
the British-designed rifle and stayed with the Vietnam
War-proven M16, which it had acquired before the SA80
came into service.
Now, as part of a "new small arms for special forces"
programme, the SAS is looking at a range of advanced
weapons to replace the M16, which, like the SA80, has also
been modified many times. The version carried recently by
the SAS in Sierra Leone is the M16A2.
Ian Hogg, editor of Jane's Infantry Weapons, said the
Hereford-based regiment had chosen to stay with the M16
because it did not consider the SA80 to be sufficiently
reliable.
Now, he said, if the SAS was looking for a replacement
for the M16, there was one assault rifle which beat all
rivals - the Austrian-made Steyr AUG (army universal gun).
Mr Hogg said: "The SA80 and Steyr AUG have roughly the
same characteristics, such as the rate of fire, but there is
no comparison. It's like saying Rolls-Royces and Fords are
the same because they both have four wheels."
He added: "The Austrian weapon is so robust that you
could drive a four-tonne truck over the rifle and you could
pick it up and fire it. You could never do that with the SA80."
However, the Army's firearms expert, who has used the
SA80 in many campaigns, said that much of the criticism had
been unfair and that the rifle had had to evolve over the
years. He predicted that once the modified version was ready
for service, it would remain in the British Army for 15 years.
The modification programme for the SA80 includes
providing a barrel extension, a strengthened hammer stop and
an enlarged ejection port to allow clean ejection. The barrel
of the light support weapon version has also been lined with
chrome.
The first 22,000 modified SA80 rifles will be delivered
to the Army by the end of next year.
--
The Steyr AUG has to be the most overrated rifle of all time.
No-one really knows whether it is any good or not as it has
not been used in any battle situation to any great extent, with
the exception of the Saudis in the Gulf War and the Australians
and New Zealanders in East Timor, and all they've done is
moan about it.
My main complaint about it is the god-awful trigger pull, and
the gas plug has a reputation for becoming a projectile in
full-auto fire. The Australians main complaint is that the
safety is too easily accidentally knocked to the "off" position.
That and it melting on full-auto.
Note that the Australian SAS ditched the AUG for the M4 carbine.
The SAS have reportedly bought SIG SG552s for the CRW team to
replace the MP5, but frankly the SIG is totally unproven in
combat as well. The Germans haven't had any major problems
with the G36 in Kosovo, however if I were the SAS I would be
buying M4 carbines or possibly the G36.
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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