Weapons Timelines for the Twilight War

[perardua]

I always have to stick my head in when I see any thread about the L85A2 online, it's a bad habit of mine, but I feel I must defend its reputation!
I have been using the weapon system for four years now, including on tour in Afghanistan, and have heard no complaints from any other British troops about its reliability, nor had any problems with it myself. The improvements HK made to the rifle were considerable, and have proven very effective. The results of the reliability testing showed that in virtually all environments it performed well. Whilst you may take these results with a pinch of salt, operational experience has borne out the findings.

In my experience, the only cause of stoppages has been bent magazine lips, which is due to poor magazine care (especially since it is quite difficult to bend the metal HK magazines that replaced the plastic Radway Green ones); or using the blank firing only training magazines.

Almost all of the small arms instructors I know and have spoken about it with have also said that they believe the A2 to be one of the most reliable weapons of its type in the world, and given my less than satisfactory experience with, for example, the M4 and M16, I tend to believe them.
The major complaints with the weapon in service at the moment have nothing to do with its reliability, but more to do with the weight, and the sight rail. The sight mounting system for the SUSAT is not as sturdy as other such systems, and whilst the SUSAT itself is a very tough sight, it can lose its zero relatively easily. Even the introduction of the ACOG has not solved this, as it has meant introducing a Picatinny adaptor to be attached to the existing sight rail, creating an extra point of failure. A lot of people are calling for the sight rail to just be replaced with a Picatinny rail, as this has already been done with the handguards on weapons in frontline service.

However, the L85A1, though I've only used it twice, was utter shite. Both times I had a number of stoppages in relation to the relatively weak return spring. I only ever used it on a range, so I didn't get to experience any of the other reported faults that occur should you actually decide to move with the weapon.