#L85A2

In 2015, the Royal Bermuda Regiment began to field the British L85A2 bullpup. Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory and is one of several territories to have its own British Army-affiliated home defence regiment. The regiment’s transition to the L85A2 was completed in early 2016, with the replacement of the last Ruger Mini-14s which had been in service since 1983. If you haven’t seen  our earlier video/article looking at the Royal Bermuda Regiment’s Mini-14 service rifles, do check it out.

The UK is currently providing basic infantry training to up to 10,000 Ukrainian troops. We have already covered the UK’s procurement of AK-pattern rifles to train Ukrainian personnel but in this article, we will look at how Ukrainian troops have also been training with the UK’s SA80/L85 bullpup rifles.

Photo Of The Day: Today we have some great reference pictures of the SA80 A2, as used by the United Kingdom. Above, pictured in an armoury is the SA80 A2 (L85A2) 5.56mm Rifle fitted with the ELCAN SpecterOS 4x and Close Quarter Battlesight (CQB).

Today’s Photo of the Day sees US troops stationed in Poland get to grips with some British small arms. Men from two cavalry regiments – one British, one American, took part in a familiarisation exercise at Bemowo Piskie, in Poland, on 30th April 2020. The two units are part of NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence that consists of four battalion-sized battle groups deploying on a persistent rotational basis to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to demonstrate the alliance’s determination and ability to act as one in response to any aggression against its members.

Photo Of The Day – Today we look at the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards with NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group Poland, in Bemowo Piskie, Poland.

The British Army’s official Twitter account shared an interesting photo of the pipe rifle range at NATO’s base in Kabul showing ‘newly arrived’ troops zeroing their rifles. The Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) Pipe Range is part of NATO’s base near Kabul’s airport. Interestingly, the men are armed with the L85A2, not the ‘new’ L85A3 which is reportedly supposed to be issued to all units going on operations. They’re also armed with the L131/Glock 17 pistols in RADAR holsters.

Today’s photo features a mysterious suppressed British L85/SA80. It appears to be using a Surefire SOCOM suppressor, we can see Surefire’s ‘Fast-Attach’ mounting system at the rear, which would require Surefire’s proprietary muzzle device. The photo surfaced on twitter earlier this week and originates from a post on the Army Rumour Service forums dating from 2008. Sadly, the post offers no context for the photos.

At this years Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) exposition in London Heckler & Koch have brought along their Mid Life Improvement of the British military’s SA80. The first images of the L85A3 appeared last summer. But some photos from the expo floor, posted by Soldier Systems Daily, show off the rifle’s new configuration.

Images from a joint European/ U.S. lead paratrooper training exercise named Swift Response in June of 2016 have shown that the Rheinmetall Defense Light Laser Module Mk.3 is being used on operations with the British Paratroopers, aka “Paras”. Initially the LLM Mk.3 was procured by the Ministry of Defense for the Royal Marines in 2014 under a £53 million purchase of a number of other items. However, it appears that the Marines haven’t been using the picatinny mounted ATPIAL on operations outside of Britain, or at least images and news reports of the branch do not show them being used. Their issue among the Paras could possibly be because the Marines ended up not liking the devices, and transferred them to the Parachute Regiment, or this could possibly be a completely different purchase altogether. We have some reports of the Marines using the device in training with this sketch from a Commando Course blog entry recently-

What do you get when you combine what’s widely regarded as one of the best rifle operating mechanisms ever invented, an innovative and promising concept, and a factory with over 150 years of history making some of the finest small arms in the world? If you said “the best rifle ever made”, you’d be out of luck, because today we’re talking about the L85A1, and how a weapon that seemed to have everything going for it ended up being possibly the worst modern infantry rifle developed by a major party.