Rare early (1971) Lithgow full auto L1A1!!

[Gil Boyd]

I think those visiting officers to the UK, see a rifle they shoot on the ranges here and hold nothing but admiration for it. Those running the ranges clearly are too young to know the full in's and out's of the SA80's dark days, so in short the Indians think it is now a good proven operational rifle, and filter that back to those in charge.
I am not saying the Excalibur project is floundering, but from what they were saying they are now throwing good money after bad!
A sentence we have heard many times here before. It is a culmination of interfering agencies and budgets, and department heads that run on efficiencies, but mostly, it is the politics that slow these projects down, having been involved in one or two with stuff I still supply to MOD today.
A tad frustrating when the kit has been on trial in some cases for 4 years on operations, and units deciding to local purchase rather than wait for the green light from DSTL/Fort Halstead or whoever ticks that ultimate box.
So I sympathise with the Indian Army, who like us, only want the best for their troops, to make sure they do have a sharp point on their spear when they need it, surely is not too much to ask in these days of manufacturing brilliance in the armnaments world!!

[mrclark303]

So I sympathise with the Indian Army, who like us, only want the best for their troops, to make sure they do have a sharp point on their spear when they need it, surely is not too much to ask in these days of manufacturing brilliance in the armnaments world!!

Very well put, in a nut shell that's what we all want, if our young men and women must be sent into harms way (an increasingly fanatical harms way at that) we expect and should demand they are equipped with that most essential and basic of foreign policy implements, a very well made and very reliable personal weapon, that's better than a potential adversary's. There simply is no excuse for anything else.

Australia have already started renewal of their small arms and I would expect the UK to at least start a completion before 2020 that hopefully leads to a new rifle coming on stream before 2025.

What's Canada and the US doing?

[Sentryduty]

What's Canada and the US doing?

Well Colt Canada spent some time with my unit doing "trials" before I departed the Army, and while I wasn't part of the trial, I did drop in to look things over and ask some informed questions.

The CC (Diemaco) reps had a series of modular chassis made of aluminium with various pieces that could be moved around to test ergonomics, notable observations of this bit of trials.

The "rifle" was always configured as a "bullpup" with a "D" style drip and guard, like the AUG series. In fact, if you were to look at that Bushmaster M17 rifle, add a D grip. make it silver and shorten the length you would have an excellent visual of their Lego Gun test chassis.

Bushmaster M17S shown for reference


The magazine was much shorter and thicker than the STANAG 5.56mm 30 rounder we know today. The CC Reps, when asked, indicated they are working on some "new" caliber options, no other explanations. If I had to describe it, imagine a magazine that could be a quad-stack of .30 carbine. The same footprint of two extended M1 Carbine 15 round magazines taped together side by side.

The current issue Elcan C79 optic was in use for the trials.

A dummy M203 launcher was also mounted on some, but it was above the bore and the C79 mounted on top of that. The launcher did not work, so no idea how they planned to load or trigger it in that arrangement. Vertical parallax must have been silly as well.

Front pistol grips were mounted, as was some other high-speed junk, no provision or consideration for a bayonet was observed.

At this time, I consider all of the above to be masturbatory vaporware, the CC people didn't seem to be asking the troops what they wanted, they were presenting a school of thought and watching soldiers climb around and pretend to point it at things while squeezing dummy triggers.

From a reality standpoint, the Small Caliber Bullpup Lego Gun worries me, but the C7A2 service life upgrade is only 11 years old at this point, so I think we will not see any new replacement for some time. That, and the defense budget by GDP is the same as Spain and slightly less than Japan.

[Gil Boyd]

Similar to my old issue Steyr

[browningautorifle]

Thank f*ck I'm not in Gagetown to go through the trials on THAT sort of things again. They did it once and rejected it.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The funny thing abut the "Bushmaster 17S" is that it started out here in Oz, in the fertile brain of one Charles Giorgio, later known as Charles St. George, who had previously "re-imagined" the AR-18 into the Leader Dynamics rifle, way back in the 1970s. That design subsequently had a brief rebirth as the AAA SAR.

The bullpup didn't get much beyond prototype stage here before the family bolted to the USA to start anew in a better environment.

I ran into the man himself, and some of the family, at a SHOT Show a few years ago. Nice folks.

[Gil Boyd]

Indias PR release on the Excalibur:

[Gil Boyd]

I suppose there is only so much design work you can do, to try and change an established look

[tankhunter]

Note that the video was always cut to another view. As soon as it was being stripped, to avoid seeing the internals!

I suspect, a cloned system internally of the AK.......................

[Gil Boyd]

Just saves so much time when you know a mate called Ivan who'll help out!!