Just some small things with the list you posted, the 47 OH-58 Kiowas and 47 Bell 206B are referencing the same helo. They were the 206B civilian models modified for military use and retained the civilian designation.
We never had the OH-58 version.
And yes, we definitely had the licence for the AUG in the 1980s, late 80s but still the 80s. If I can actually remember back that far, I think the first versions were being mass issued in early1989, they were definitely on show in 1988 as I saw a few of them when I participated in Army Tattoo 88 in Western Australia.
My last unit got them in 1991 I think, might have been 1992 but I was carrying one for a couple of years.
I was in an Army Reserve infantry unit so we were further down the food chain when it came to distribution of the new rifles but even still, they rifle was accepted for service in 1988 and most infantry units had been fully converted to the F88 Austeyr by 1992. Less than five years so that gives some idea of how quickly we could have got serious production going (however keep in mind we're not talking hundreds of thousands of rifles, I think we requested about 90,000 in total).
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11-17-2018, 02:24 AM
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