Enter the AR-18
We discussed this at length in another thread several years ago (if I remember which one, I'll post the link)- about how the British military would have handled the L85A1's numerous issues. IRL, these were addressed in the early 2000s.
This creates a bit of a timing issue if WW3 kicks off in the mid-'90s and goes nuclear c.'98. You can look at it two ways. Assuming that the Cold War never really ends, perhaps the British Army accelerates a product improvement plan and rolls out the L85A2 as the war is getting underway. This seems a bit ambitious, given that H&K was involved IRL, and the German company would have had its hands full with the soon-to-be-reunified German army.
Scenario 2 is that the L85A1 is still in widespread service come WWIII and its shortcoming come into stark, deadly relief as the war spirals out of control.
In this latter case, the British military has a couple of short-term options. Start reissuing SLRs and Sterlings from reserve or try to replace the SLR with a comparable domestically-produced assault rifle. Enter the AR-18. Apparently it was being manufactured in the UK through the 1980s. As an emergency measure, the British government could expand production and start issuing AR-18s to replace defective L85A1s.
You could also go a combo route and have the British gov't dusting off SLRs and increasing production of the AR-18 to replace/supplement the L85A1.
Or, you could just say that the British military decides to make due with the L85A1 while they attempt to fix its issues by itself.
Personally, I like the idea of the British Army c.2000 being armed with a mix of SLRs, AR-18, and "product-improved" L85A1s.
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