Quote:
Originally Posted by 95th Rifleman
What does that leave the British with? Well the only alternative would be to fall back on the old FN-FAL variant known as the SLR L1A1 which was manufactured in Britain and it can be safely assumed that large numbers could be found in storage. But could Britain manufacture this weapon? the SLR was built in Liverpool, Birmingham and the London borough of Enfield. All 3 where targets of nuclear strikes, as was almost all of the UK's industrial capability.
So what the hell could Britain do, post-exchange, to re-arma nd rebuild her armed forces? I'm throwing this one out because, quite frankly, i have no bloody clue otherthan to continue to use stored weapons untill they ran out.
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I can't remember where we discussed this before, but this point has been brought up a couple of times. Some folks seem to think the L85's teething troubles would have been worked out in the continued Cold War of either T2k timeline, others favor a return to the tried-and-true SLR, thousands of which were held in reserve during the '90s.
I proposed the Brits restarting production of the AR-18. The UK was liscenced to produce them from '67-'79 (IRL) so a foundation for renewed/accelerated production would would already be in place come the mid- '90s WWIII.
By all accounts, the AR-18 is a relatively simple, reliable, and accurate 5.56mm assault rifle. It could be produced in large quantities and issued to those UK troops whose L85s were kaput, or for whom the pre-existing stocks of SLRs were not available.