#L85

The British L85 is one of the more unusual stories in modern military small arms. Conceived during a period when Britain was attempting to develop a new generation of infantry weapons around a domestically designed intermediate cartridge, the project eventually produced the L85 rifle. This advanced but deeply troubled weapon would later become one of the most extensively reworked service rifles of its generation.

I’ve had more than one e-mail from our dear readers on why I continue to write up Forgotten Weapons’ L85 Series. Outside the complaints of repetitiveness, the complaint that struck as the reason why I am publishing them came out – that no one wants to hear of the L85. They would prefer, as ironic as the channel’s name implies – that the weapon be forgotten.

Most of the time Forgotten Weapons takes a look at weapons that are indeed largely forgotten. Sometimes they cover modern weapons and some of their history, and at other times they cover weapons that many wish were just forgotten. This is one of those latter times, where Ian gets a hands-on look at the history and first prototypes of the SA-80 series of rifles. Ultimately, the SA-80 program turned into the L85, which is sometimes loved but generally hated upon.

The Sterling L2A3 was the iconic Cold War submachine gun of the British Army. Inexpensive to make, compact and rugged, it was a design that incorporated the experience from the Sten submachine gun, a weapon which though inexpensive really left a lot to be desired. In a recent video, Ian from Forgotten Weapons and working in concert with Armament Research Services (ARES), produced a video overview of some of the British developments in submachine guns (which they called “machine carbines”) just before, during, and after World War II. These designs helped pave the way for the Sterling, which saw service all the way through the Gulf War until its retirement in 1994.

In January, just before the 2017 SHOT Show, I got the opportunity to travel to Cody Wyoming to visit the Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, to see some of their rare firearms and bring photos of them to our readers.

It’s not just the Yanks that are getting improved ammunition: Our friends across the pond have developed their own firepower upgrade for 5.56mm and 7.62mm weapons alike. Jane’s has a modest article on the subject, while The Register provides a quite good overview of exactly what the new rounds are and what they mean for today’s Tommy:

On Saturday we looked at one British  “contender” which could have in some alternate reality become the NATO standard round, and today we’re going to look at another: The 4.85x49mm. After the United States adopted the .223 Remington round as the 5.56x45mm in the mid-1960s, a race began among NATO member nations to create and adopt something similar. Lest the Organization lose the benefits of standardization if a member nation pre-emptively adopted a new SCHV round, these efforts force NATO to begin a competition for a second NATO-standard infantry round. Entrants from the USA, France, Belgium, Germany, and the UK competed head-to-head, and while it was the Belgian 5.56mm SS109 that emerged victorious, the 4.85x49mm round submitted by the UK was ballistically impressive enough to warrant a second look.

The concept of a stockless – or “bullpup” – rifle has been around since the very dawn of the 20th Century. It was invented in the United Kingdom, the country with which it still is most closely associated. After World War II, the concept began to gain traction, but bullpups saw their greatest success in the 1970s and ’80s, being adopted by Austria, Britain, France, Singapore, and many other major nations of the world. However, in the modern military market, the concept’s popularity has declined. The questions of why, and how designers can create more competitive military bullpups are the subjects of this article.

For those that are not familiar with the ELCAN model that the LDS is based on, you can read my detail write-up of the ELCAN Specter OS 4X here. The last component of the L85 bullpup that needs to be update is its SUSAT optic. Over two years ago the British military have chosen the ELCAN Lightweight Day Sight (LDS), which is based on the ELCAN Specter OS 4X model, as the replacement of the SUSAT sight. Although the UK MoD have been buying the Trijicon ACOG 4×32 sight as the substitute of the obsolescent SUSAT sight for some of their deployed troops in Afghanistan, but that’s regarded as a temporary solution. Many assumed that the combat proven Trijicon ACOG 4×32 would be the logical successor of the SUSAT on the L85 bullpup.

A reader emailed us a photo he saw in a trade union magazine. The British police officers in the photo are helping guard a Rapier missile installationing during the Olympic games. They are carrying the updated version of the L85A2 with the new rail system, Trijicon ACOG (with Trijicon RMR sight on top), foregrip/bipod, under barrel light and Magpul EMAG magazines.