3 Commando Brigade

Making the L85 from polymer would require the entire rifle to be redesigned. You can't do it as a 1:1 replacement because it'll break. You can't just make it thicker because nothing will fit.

It already is the best IW in the world, bar none. Don't listen to crusty old sods going on about SLR or  the tacticool lot banging on about AR platform. The A2 out performs every thing on the market.

Granted, it's not perfect but that's the nature of design, you can't have everything and there has to be a trade off somewhere. 

I would argue about that, but I do have the feeling It would be a bit pointless here.


It is certainly a good rifle, but far from being "the best" or perfect.

From what I can gather they are looking at doing this to try and extend the service life of the weapon system. The rifle is due to be retired in the mid 2020s this service plan will extend that. They did mention in the article that lost weapons have seen active service so do need a full up haul. Additionally as SJ has already said the addition of a full too rail will allow the inclusion of a night sight to the day scopes.



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Regards Robbie, trust me I love the SA80 A2's and have used it a stupid amount, but the weight itself is something which stops it from being the best IW right now. Imo there isn't really a "best" IW because all have their flaws. The SA80 has very little, primary being the weight, and you could argue the ergo's for the rifle are also a bit poor, but I only know of people under 5'6 who have a problem handling the rifle.

However, the rifle is probably, if not right now, one of the best IW's you can get in NATO. Works like a charm, is as accurate as most 7.62 marksmen rifles, shorter than an M4 rifle and with the new kit packages, and you can kit it out in whatever gucci kit your QM or stores master allows you to.

The weight is literally the main, if only, hindrance of the rifle. It only needs a new package to decrease the weight and it'd be a golden rifle. The polymer plastic baseplate overhaul isn't entirely fictional and impossible. However, the revamp would actually turn it into an "A3" variant. A few workings parts within the rifle will need to be changed. A thin metal skeleton reinforced by a polymer plastic, similar to that of the FN Herstal SCAR rifle, would work.

Edit: If you're going off of the Wikipedia "source" that the rifle is meant to be retired in 2025, don't believe it Andy mate. It's pure speculation. Unless another, new rifle pops up in the market which is significantly better than any other rifle in anyway, or until we switch from 5.56 primary to 6.5, we won't be changing our IW.

The weight of the rifle has never bothered me on the range, in the field or even stagging on. I like the weight, it is a postive, especially considering how close it is to the man. It is the easiest weapon I've ever fired in the offhand position.

I wasn't saying the rifle's weight is a problem out in the field, theatre or range. I never had an issue with it either, yet if you was to compare the weight of the rifle to other basic IW weapons around the world, it weighs around 1kg or 1.5kg more.

SA80 standard without the fancy new rail package is 5kg.
With the fancy new package it's 4.2kg, around about. 
With the L123A2 it's 5.5kg

Now compare that to the yank M16's and M4's. 4kg and 3.4kg.
The russians 74M. 3.5kg
The HK416's are around 3.5kg too.
Our L119A1/2's are the only rifle which have a fairly similar weight distribution; around 4kg.

During our phase 1 and phase 2, we're basically trained around the weight of the rifle, so you don't actually notice it at all. But once you pick up a different rifle, you're going to be in for a shock due how to light it feels. We had a realities of war class in harrogate when I was around and the SNCO's brought in different rifles of all the world, all deacts unfortunately, and compared them to our SA80. Fair enough, the SA80's we had didn't have the fancy package, but it was a slap to the face surprise if ever. You'd pick up the AK-47 model 2's and M16's and christ almighty it was like you've picked up a feather.

It is a bit of a shame that they decided to keep the series going. I think they did trial a lot of newer third party weapon systems a few years ago and it would have been an ideal chance to replace the L85A2 once and for all. The MoD is pretty persistent on manufacturing its own gear when they could probably save the trouble by buying third party.