New Zealand Defense Force upgrading Steyr AUGs
From MP.net:
However, although the 13,000 Steyr rifles which have been in service for 20 years, would not be replaced, they would be a significant part of the upgrade programme.
The study would look at modifying about 3000 of the 13,000 5.56mm rifles so they could take more fittings on the top rail, instead of the factory-fitted 1.5 magnification sighting system
The Australians already use a mixture of the AUGs with 1.5x sights and the ‘railed’ AUGs. I have always thought that the 1.5x scope was a bad compromise on an assault rifle. The target acquisition speed is less than a non magnified red dot sight (I have no experience with magnified red dot sights) but lacks the benefits of a more powerful scope. It must be working for the New Zealanders because they are only thinking about converting 23% of their rifles.
Australian Solider in Iraq with ADI Austeyr A3 that
comes fitted with a rail.
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Hmm, why not upgrade to the Steyr Aug A3 with comes with the rails?
I could easily be wrong but I suspect NZ buys their weapons from the same place AU buy their weapons: ADI
ADI would probably upgrade to the A3
http://www.adi-limited.com/site.asp?page=148
The Australian Defence Force will be upgrading the steyr to the New A3 model by 2012, this can be found under Project 125 of the Research department of the Defence force.
Matt, I did some googling about “land 125″ and did not find anything about upgrading to the A3 or is it another project called “125″?
To clear up “125″ issues and confusion the A3 varient is to be upgraded to allow the firing of GLA and underslung shot gun attachment with the trigger finger. There is much speculation on INF 2012 weapon systems and the steyr will look marketly different. What is concrete is that what changes happen to the weapons system the it must have the same range or better and must not be any heavier than current weight with modifications. There is a photo around of an ugly australian modified A3, this is not the new rifle and was a test bed system and was a demo only. The ADF rumour mill is leaning more to the AUG A4 design as now Australia owns the rights of all world wide styer production and also pattened designs from Austria.
Matt, thanks for your interesting comment. I have posted it here:
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2008/08/28/steyr-aug-a4-adi-austeyr-f88-a4/
I’ve used the NZ AUG, yes they are AUSteyrs from ADI, not austrian made ones.
as to the comments about the 1.5x integral scope, They can be used both eyes open for rapid target engagement. It takes a bit of getting used to but it allows one to both have a wide field of view, and a bit more detail of the target. having a ring rather than cross hairs or dot also means when targetting it’s simple to focus on the point of aim within the ring, rather than covering something with a dot or centering crosshairs on the point of impact.