As a pure laymen, I never understood why when building service firearms in modererate numbers (200,000 / 300,000), with a view for a 30 year plus service life, like the L85/86, why not make them from milled billet instead of formed welded steel??

If your intention is a cheap "AKM" type, to be made in the millions, then it makes perfect sense.

But building a limited number of (supposed) quality service firearms for a professional Army, well, this method of expedient cheap manufacture just doesn't seem to make sense to me.

Or have I got it completely wrong guys?