Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
... a prototype weapon from the late '70s called the Stirling Light Auto Rifle. It's on pages 306-307 of DK's Gun, A Visual History. I can't find anything about it online. It looks like it's made of stamped parts. It's 5.56mm and has a folding stock. It looks a bit like the Armalite AR-18 but not quite.
|
Although known earlier as the Sterling Light Auto Rifle, the more common name is SAR (for Sterling Assault Rifle). Sterling Armaments had a contract to manufacture the AR-18 but it didn't prove financial. They designed the SAR with input from their experience with the AR-18 and went on to design the SAR-87 with help from Singapore.
Sterling didn't achieve much success with the SAR or SAR-87 even though they offered it in a few configurations including the ability to change to 9x19mm. The rights were sold on to Chartered Industries of Singapore (CIS, later to become ST Kinetics after being bought out by ST Engineering) where it influenced the Singaporean
SAR-80 rifle.
Sterling Armaments went bankrupt in 1988 and were bought up by BAe.
Other links
http://www.securityarms.com/20010315.../1700/1792.htm
http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/...Rifle&offset=0 Has an image with the alternate configuration but image is tiny