update
Posted on 02/27/2003 11:30:26 PM PST by green team 1999
February 28, 2003
Army's £92m rifles 'still jamming'
By Daniel McGrory in Kuwait and Michael Evans
SOME British troops training for war in Iraq are complaining that their SA80 rifles, modified at a cost of £92 million, are still jamming. A group of soldiers approached The Times in Kuwait and said that the rifle, now called SA80-A2, had jammed on numerous occasions.
An army captain who asked not to be identified said that live firing exercises had been carried out on board ships taking them to the Gulf. “In the past, dust and sand have been blamed for jamming, but on ship the conditions were sterile,” he said. “Yet, out of a batch of 24 rifles, nine of them jammed at some point.”
Another soldier from the group said that his rifle had jammed with every fifth round that he fired during live firing in the Kuwaiti desert. Several of the soldiers stripped down their weapons to demonstrate how a thin black metal strip that is meant to release another round into the chamber frequently sticks.
They said that another mechanism, which was supposed to show when the chamber was empty, also jammed, leaving troops unsure whether they still had live ammunition in the magazine. The captain said: “I know we are supposed to count every round we fire, but that is not always possible in the heat of battle.”
The SA80 has been dogged by controversy since it first came into service in 1992, but its failings were supposed to have been rectified by a £58 million modification by the arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch, owned by BAE systems. All 300,000 rifles have been or are being upgraded.
The modifications included a new breech block, breech bolt, cartridge extractor and ejector, firing pin, and cocking handle. The whole magazine was also replaced.
A British army spokesman insisted last night: “The problems experienced by these troops have not been reflected in the extensive trials of the weapons both on land and at sea. The SA80-A2 has so far proved to be a much more reliable weapon than its predecessor. We have also instituted a rigorous new cleaning regime for the modified weapon.”
In Kuwait a senior British officer acknowledged that there had been some problems — but “nothing massive” — with the rifle. Any complaints were being investigated. He insisted that it was wrong to make a judgment about the rifle based on a few random remarks from a soldier.
The claims about the new version of the SA80 rifle were also greeted with surprise by senior army officers at the Ministry of Defence.
They said that 7th Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats, which has been training with the SA80-A2 for months, before leaving for Kuwait, had praised the rifle. “None of the soldiers complained about jamming, and we feel confident that the SA80-A2 is an excellent weapon, as good as any in the world,” one officer said.
An MoD official said that sometimes soldiers treated the magazines of their rifles in a rough way and they could get damaged. “All they have to do is go to the quartermaster and get another magazine, it’s nothing to do with the rifle as such,” the official said.
The first time that the SA80-A2 was used in combat was by the Royal Marines in Afghanistan. The MoD said that there had been eight reports of weapon failure.
for information and discusion only,not for profit,etc,etc.
update
I hope this senior SOB will be leading the troops from the front of the attack armed with this rifle.
You may look it up.
This looks like something out of the Martini-Henry handbook (circa 1886).
This could also be a batch of crappy magazines. Usually that turns out to be the problem with my unit's M-16s and M-4s.
One poster on FAL-FILES once suggested they be sold to the hammer-monkeys at Century Arms...
Stay Safe !
Just good luck, I guess.
... which they started re-shelving again from their front-line troops because of the same jamming problem. The 'sand cuts' in the L1A1 SLR were an afterthought technique adopted from the IDF who found that it didn't do much to help the problem when the dust encountered was like talcum powder. The IDF had always had the gimmicky 'Sand Cuts', who chucked it for the Galil.
For a short time, the British front-line troops in the first Gulf War had even taken to using Greek-licensed copies of the Hk G-3 rifle, or borrowed M16/A1s fitted with A2 handguards from the USA and C7 rifles from Canada.
Also, the 7.62mm rounds they distrubuted with the re-issued L1A1s was delinked machinegun ammo from their L7A2s that's designed to fire inconsistently to create a 'beaten zone'.
The only reliable arm the British brought to the desert was the Sterling SMG.
My opinion is that the British should take the cue from the Australians and adopt the Steyr AUG if they want a real bullpup.
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