SA80 Rifle (L85A2 IW)

SA80 Rifle Production History

The SA80 rifle was first designed in the 1980's and was commissioned in 1985. It was originally developed by a company called "Enfield Royal Small Arms Factory" (now BAE Systems Land Systems Munitions & Ordnance).

There was a reliability issue and the SA80 was refurbished by Heckler & Koch (Heckler & Koch back then was a division of British Aerospace). It was around the year 2000 that the refurbishment was started. The SA80 is a worldwide known weapon and will more than likely be the primary British Infantry Rifle till 2015.

SA80 Rifle Variants

There are 4 SA80 rifle Variants that make up the SA80 Family, the first being the Individual Weapon L85 IW, the Light support Weapon L86 LSW, the Assault Carbine L22A1 which is often known as the SA80A2, (this weapon is a carbine version) or the SA80A2K, the last being the L98A1 CGP (Cadet General Purpose) this is a manually operated version.

All of the gun variants are similar in that:

• All variants use the same rifle rounds which are 5.56x45mm NATO this is from a 30-round magazine.
• All variants can mount either an iron carrying handle or a 4x optical sight with a tritium-powered pointer, which is for limited night time sightings along with the Common Weapon Sight (CWS) - a "Next Gen" Scope for night time use.

British SA80 Rifle.

Disassembled SA80 Rifle.

Royal Marine Using SA80

British Assult Rifle Configurations

The British assult rifle configuration is of the bullpup with its pistol grip. The mechanism is in the buttstock and the magazine is at the front. The SA80 combines a long, free floating barrel with high accuracy, in a weapon with compact dimensions. The weapon has a resemblance to the bullpup EM-2 which was produced in 1948 this was a prototype rifle. The actual similarities of other bullpups compared to the SA80 are only skin deep and they have very few mechanical similarities.

British SA80 Rifle: Short Range Combat

The SA80 rifle can have an iron sight which incorporates a handle which is used for carrying. This is mainly when there are operations in jungle environments as there is a large probability of short range combat. Most of the time the SA80^s are fitted with the SUSA SA80 design floor.

SA80 Magazine Reliability

Since the early development there has been many criticisms regarding SA80 magazine reliability during field tests. Complaints raised were:

• The release catch on the magazine could be easily knocked, resulting in the magazine being dropped to the floor. There was a quick fix for this and that was to glue a protective housing around it.
• The gas mechanism was far too weak and to avoid the mechanism dropping out, gaffa tape was applied.
• The amount of rounds the magazines could hold has to be shortened due to the very weak magazine spring (around 26-28 rounds). The lips of the magazines had to be checked for any dents and would have to be kept very clean.
• There was a lack of effective suppressive fire support from the LSW due to the smaller magazine and the barrel overheating when around 125 - 155 rounds where fired in short bursts.

SA80 Redesign

Over many years of minor fixes, they had eased some of the problems but the bigger problems still existed, in 1997 the MOD bowed down to the problems and commissioned HK to undertake the SA80 redesign. The changes were very expensive (estimated at £92m or about 145 million dollars/euros).