UK Award Heckler & Koch $95 million Contract For SA80 Rifle Upgrade

[Canada tail]

Total piece of junk. Wasting more money o it seems to be a brilliant idea.

[bellero]

Isn't it the second or third time they give HK a contract to upgrade SA80's?

[nickvaselino]

This will tide them over until the A4 variant aka hk416 variant is adopted

[Levon12345]

Had a chance to handle the A3 and the A2 this summer. The new rifle has good improvements. And accurate enough for a Ghurka to win top shot at CAFSAC this year. So the new ones work at least.

[ThatM305Guy]

Had a chance to handle the A3 and the A2 this summer. The new rifle has good improvements. And accurate enough for a Ghurka to win top shot at CAFSAC this year. So the new ones work at least.

Saying the new variants suck because they came from the original is like people saying the m4 sucks because it came from the Vietnam era M16 *shakes head*

[North_Sylva]

I guess that means we aren't getting anything from H&K for the civilian market in the near-to-medium future...with all their military contracts, we're on the farthest rear, back burner...

H&K is working hard to reduce the delay of delivery. But if you want a USP SUPER A1 .40S&W V9 in RAL5284, expect to wait 12 months or longer.

[greentips]

Looks like they are just buying enough for the combat arms people.

This is how the MOD thinks. Yes, SA80 is not the best, but it is useable. They need 50,000 rifles for the combat arms soon and it is difficult justify to have two different rifles in the system to the government, and they are running out of time. So they are wiling to basically buy 50,000 of the new "same thing". It is probably more "bang for the bucks" from the user perspective to get the newest but the 'corporate' view is they don't think it is worth the other money, the fight and other intangible/tangible problems, and there is not enough time

If the combat arms want their own more advanced weapons, is it doable? Hell yeh, the special forces and royal marines have their own Diemacos. Lots of countries somehow manage this kind of things. Upgrading and rebuilding the same thing is easier to justify by the MOD to the government ( look at the fiasco of the committee holding up the USMC's 20-% budget for the HK M27). When you propose a brand new solution, the justification is getting way more scrutiny and this means it is not getting done onetime . Advocating for new "dual" small arms system within the MOD doesn't seem like an essential career move either with high risk of failure, and there must be enough internal advocates for it. Either they were never there or got rolled over internally early on.

This really means the UK armed force will be using SA80 til 2030. Whatever the US wants to do with 6mm in the next 10 years won't begin to filter down to the rest of NATO until the 2030, probably not to France and Germany until 2040. We will be all retiring by that point.

[Max Owner]

The LMT MWS was type-classified as the L129A1 Sharpshooter Rifle by the British Army for use as a Designated Marksman Rifle, not as a general-issue service rifle. It is issued on the basis of one per Section of 8-10 infantrymen, not one per soldier.

Thanx for this.

[Stoner99]

UK ���� should get that new HK433 or go G36. Hk416 would be great too. If they are he’ll bent on a bullpup then get a new upgraded AUG or just go traditional rifle and go with Colt Canada SAS line.

[loves2spooge]

Is that the safety way back behind the magwell? Weird spot!

thats the selector switch the safety is above the trigger

I dont get why they dont just go with C7s or C8s like their special operations forces.

more effort to replace and train everyone with all the sa80s by proposing a new weapon system probably

not saying that this is the best weapon out there but given public spend and hoops to jump through it might be the least effort upgrade they can make with the money they have