Does any other countries army use the SA80??

Question

I have held and fired this gun (it was the old version and had a single shot restriction on it) - i found it clumsy to hold and very heavy - i can't imagine what it would be like to carry with a full magazine - what are you thoughts??

Also if it is special - why do our elite forces use modified M16s??

Answer 1

No nation apart from Britain use the SA80 A2 in appreciable numbers.......and even the British Forces try not to use it when-ever they can.

A subtle hint at its popularity is that no British Special Forces use it in any shape of form.

The LSW light support weapon variant was totally outclassed when it was first used,and the only poor sods to still use it are the " non-teeth" arms like Royal Engineers......who actually happen to be in the thick of conflict an awful lot.The infantry now use,what they should have been given 10 years ago...the Minimi..i think its called.

The old Self Loading Rifle ( SLR ) 7.62mm that was in service before this,was in my experience a far superior weapon...very much more reliable and robust,and powerful....great for my job,but then again,i wasnt infantry.

Answer 2

The original design that the SA80 was based on was first drawn up back in 1945, while a very good idea it was cost prohibitive and work intensive at the time, because so many pieces would have to have been hand-crafted.

One British Army soldier described it to me as the most expensive "war club" ever made and that standard kit included superglue to stick the cocking knob back on, also the M16 steel magazines had a nasty habit of wearing away the plastic magazine holding catch which lead to many mags falling off and onto the street when on foot-patrol.

They should go for the Austrian Styer AUG like the Irish Defense Forces and the Australians, very efficient.

Answer 3

The Jamaican Defense Force use the SA80 as well as the British. I think you fired the L98A1 GP Cadet Rifle due to it being a cadet rifle it was limited to single shot. When you are talking about our special forces some do such as the Royal Marine Commando's but i guess you are talking about the SAS the reason they don't use the SA80 was because they found it couldn't cope with the environment they usually worked in (e.g Jungle, Wet environments) and that it wasn't really found to be a special forces weapon (not enough space for attachments despite the addition of a pica-tinny rail system) so they prefer to use the highly modifiable M4 rifle, and the reason everyone is saying that the rifle is bulky and unreliable is because they are focusing primarily on the SA80A1 rifle whereas the army now use a heavily improved SA80A2 rifle which can handle the stresses of the environments the army have recently been in (sandy environments like Iraq or Afghanistan).

Answer 4

Heckler & Koch from Germany was bought by British Aerospace's Royal Ordnance.
so it's a British company now.
I said before the British army should have bought ex DDR army's AK 47s, which are better than SA 80s

Answer 5

Its horrifically heavy and pretty much useless, in anything but a stand off capacity at long range, its the most accurate assault rifle at 400-600m.
The A2 is a little better but no frontline force should be given it. The UKSF use the canadian Diemaco C8, its the m4 with all the bugs worked out.
Jamaica I believe brought a few but thats it.
The UK government is looking at a replacement and looking at the HK G36. Hopefully they will buy it because its simply the ****.

Answer 6

The first generation SA 80 was unreliable and badly designed which is why it was modified courtesy of Heckler & Koch from Germany. I found it didn't compare to the old 7.62mm SLR which was an awesome weapon and one I will remember with great fondness.

Answer 7

Shite weapon in comparison to the M4 SOPMOD, Steyr AUG, FN2000, H&K G36K, . The LSW never lived up to it's brief.

I believe only the UK, Jamaica, and Zimbabwe use it in any appreciable numbers.

Mozambique, Venezuela had some, though Caracas has stricken it from Active Inventory.

Answer 8

actully a few other countries us sa80 clones. look and function the same just made by other companys. i got the chance to shoot with the brits while i was in kosovo i didnt care for the sa80 i guess i was too use to my m16a2 . i now own a s&w m&p ar 15 and love it

Answer 9

Only the british use the SA80. Although being very heavy, it is very reliable and is very accurate.

Answer 10

Jamaica

Mozambique

Zimbabwe

Venezuela - bought some for special Forces but have now abandoned them.