3 Commando Brigade

British Army unveils the SA80 (L85A3 Prototype?)

Saw this on reddit, here's the thread link: https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryPorn/comments/537j09/british_army_unveils_the_sa80_l85a3_prototype/By the way, no idea how legit this is, take it with a pinch of salt



Actually looks okay-ish. On the fence about it. Sort of like Virtus. It's so/so. It doesn't actually look like an "A3" variant at all, just the asthetics have changed. Similar to how people started calling the SA80's with the current metal RIS as "L85A3's" because it looked different than the standard plastic handguard we have.

If than tan on the base is actually a polymer plastic and not simply spray painted, it'd decrease the weight significantly, and I'd happily accept that change. The front polymer guard with the 4inch RIS rail looks pretty weak and I'd imagine it'd break a lot easier than the current full metal one we're issuing right now.

But then again, this is probably the MoD going "See? We do care about our soldiers, look at this gucci looking fancy kit which won't work!" Like they've done multiple times in the past. Haven't got my hopes up, and I don't expect anything good from Westminister.

looks metal to me with the biggest change is the key mod rail on the front rail. 

Significant benefit would be the full length rail. Will allow simple Night optics in front of the LDS

Another photo popped up on the thread

This lot are going to look funny throwing that thing around...

In the original arrival we found it did say the gas parts were to be changed due to the new foregrip. When I turn my PC on I'll include the link.


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It's designed to be lightweight though. MoD might save a bit of dosh if they scrimp on a few bits of material. Not like our older body armour was any good either.

Virtus is a step closer towards the US equipment.

Also just noticed how cool the new(?) boots look

Being a step closer to our American counterparts isn't really a good thing. A lot of people I've spoken to who've trial'd Virtus in Merville all think it's s**t. Only good thing that I heard was that it felt a lot more mobile due to the decrease in size and weight. Imo, the Osprey kit is a lot better than Virtus. And the SA80 series isn't really needed for a chance. Why fix something which isn't broken? The genuine only change it needs is to replace the metal base with a polymer plastic to decrease the weight, and it'd actually end up becoming the best IW in NATO, maybe even the world.

Standard MoD procedure. They now consider themselves as falling behind on the quality of standard kit, when they're not, so they ask for a s**t of money. They get it, and they trial whatever they feel like needs changing. Two things happen, A: They either ask some British company to make something from scratch, I.E BAE, and it ends up turning into a pile of rubbish because that company had too little time to think of something. Or B: Purchase from the lowest bidder.

Not to mention, Westminister is bringing all these changes for 2020 yet some regiments in the army are still using CS95's, ECBA's and Snatch's.