L85A1, once an assault rifle equipped by the British Army, but compared with the sign of the "British Empire Standard Rifle", the negative image of the L85A1 seems to be more widely known. High failure rate, poor quality control, etc., these problems make the L85A1 a weapon that is not friendly to soldiers, and looking at all 400,000 L85A1 rifles, the worst performer is the one manufactured in 1985. The first batch was built by the famous Enfield Royal Arsenal.
L85A1's history has to be talked about from the late 1970s, when NATO’s ammunition caliber was gradually unified to 5.56mm. In order to highlight the differences in the British Empire, the United Kingdom created a 4.85mm ammunition, but the caliber is too small and the lethality is insufficient. In the end, there is no market. It can only compromise with 5.56mm, so the army needs a new assault rifle.
British standard weapons have always been the responsibility of the Royal Enfield Arsenal, and this time is no exception. The designer is based on the XL60 rifle (X means experimental type), retaining the principle of short piston air guiding and rotating bolt type Locking, and adding a supportless structure, thus creating a new XL70 rifle.
It is not difficult to see from the appearance that the XL70 is very similar to the later L85A1. In a sense, the XL70 is actually the prototype gun of the L85A1.
In 1981, the XL70 was officially sent to the British Army for testing, but the military soon discovered the problem.
First of all, the craftsmanship of the weapon is extremely poor, and the magazine base is actually welded, which not only leaves welding marks, which causes the weapon's appearance to decrease, but also affects the stability of the magazine base. The magazine often falls off for no reason, affecting combat effectiveness ; Secondly, the failure rate of the bolt machine is high, with an average of 95 rounds having one failure, while the original standard required by the military was at least 2500 rounds having one failure, showing the poor performance.
Obviously, the poorly performing XL70 has failed. If this equipment is energy-producing, would the British Empire still need it? Therefore, the Royal Enfield Arsenal continued to improve. Later, after several years of development, the SA80 gun family was born in 1984, and the L85A1 assault rifle was mass-produced and installed in the British Army in 1985.
Although the L85A1 is mass-produced, it does not mean that its performance is good. It has more problems than the XL70. Considering that the magazine is easy to fall off, the designer changed the process of the magazine seat to riveting. However, this time there is another problem with the magazine. The spring has insufficient spring force, resulting in poor delivery of ammunition.
The second is the poor sealing. In the test, the British army found that the L85A1 is easy to enter the mud and sand, which will cause the firearm to malfunction.
The sediment problem reached its peak in 1990, because the British participated in the Gulf War that year, the desert environment in the Middle East was simply hell difficulty for L85A1, completely exposed the problem of L85A1. There are two manufacturers of
L85A1. Originally, the designated manufacturer was the Royal Enfield Armory, but they only produced the first batch, and subsequent production was handed over to the Royal Nottingham Armory.
The main reason for the deprivation of production rights is that the first batch of L85A1 is too bad. In addition to the above problems, there are also poor polymer parts; the firing pin is easy to break; the structure is complex and the maintenance is cumbersome; In the firing mode, the barrel is easy to overheat, which affects the shooting accuracy; the handguard is not firmly connected, and it is often blown away by the gas discharged from the air pipe, which affects the soldier's aim and so on.
In short, the first batch of L85A1 did have a lot of problems. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as "crotch", and the reason is related to the situation of the Royal Enfield Arsenal. In the early 1980s, the British Conservative Party came to power. In order to reduce fiscal expenditures, they forced the Enfield Royal Arsenal to be privatized and no longer enjoyed state financial support.
In other words, the Royal Enfield Arsenal will be responsible for its own profits and losses, and will no longer be able toGot a penny in it. In the past, because of financial support, Enfield designers could invest a lot of resources to develop weapons, but now that support is gone, this has led to a sharp decline in R&D funding for the SA80 gun family, and the R&D team has been reorganized several times.
The R&D personnel have been reorganized many times, and the designers have different ideas. Each designer has a different direction, and the design of firearms will be affected. In addition, insufficient funds, and the overall environment of British industrial decline , Follow-up developers can only continue to cut down on processes and materials, naturally leading to problems with the quality control of the first batch of L85A1s, and the failure rate has risen sharply.
Actually, the military discovered the problem with L85A1 during the test. As for why it insisted on purchasing? In fact, there is still no money. From XL70 to SA80, the UK has invested more than 500 million pounds in research and development. If you abandon L85A1, it would be equivalent to announcing that this 500 million pounds has been lost. The government has no way to explain to the public, and it is impossible to spend more money on research and development. The gun, I only accepted the L85A1 with tears in tears. It was not until the L85A2 improved by H&K was later replaced that there were fewer weapon problems.
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