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HEAT IS ON OUR TOP GUN
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
HEAT IS ON OUR TOP GUN
11:00 - 08 July 2002
The main rifle of the British armed forces - heavily redeveloped under the guidance of military experts in Bristol - is again at the centre of concern about its reliability.
Senior Tories have said the Ministry of Defence should consider replacing the Army's main assault rifle if an investigation shows that it still has major problems.
But Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said reports from troops in Afghanistan that the SA80-A2 had been misfiring and jamming would need to be fully investigated before any decision was made.
"I've just come back from time in Afghanistan with the Royal Marines and where we have had a specialist team from the Ministry of Defence and, also importantly, the manufacturers, investigating reports that a small number of the rifles are jamming.
"We have still to get to the bottom of exactly what those problems are before we make any judgment.
"From time to time some of the rifles are jamming but they are operating in really extreme conditions. It's very, very hot and there is lots of sand. And some of the rifles are being affected by the heat.
"But it's not good enough.We have spent a considerable amount of money upgrading this rifle and I don't want to accept second-best.
"We do not want anybody to be facing any more risks out there than they are already."
The original SA80 was suspended from the Nato nominated weapon list in 1997 after soldiers experienced problems such as jamming in extreme weather, and it underwent a ?92 million modification programme, led by the Defence Procurement Agency at Abbey Wood.
The MoD has already spent another ?15.4 million to date upgrading 22,000 of the 34,000 rifles issued to the Army.
In the wake of the new problems, shadow defence secretary Bernard Jenkin said: "It is too early to say whether this is a fundamental problem or something relatively minor.
"But I can imagine the Ministry of Defence is very anxious about it, because there has been a long history to the problems with this rifle.
"If this turns out to be a continuation of the previous problems, I think it is going to be very, very difficult to sustain this rifle in the British Army.
"If you are fighting a war and you hesitate because you haven't quite got the faith in your weapon that you should have, that is obviously fatal, and we can't put our soldiers in that position.
"We did challenge the Government in the last Parliament, when Iain Duncan Smith was shadow secretary of state, that unless they were absolutely sure that the modification would fix it, then they should spend the money on a new rifle.
"Well, this chicken could be coming home to roost."
http://www.thisisbristol.com/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=91146&command=displayContent&sourceNode=86447&contentPK=2083954
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
11:00 - 08 July 2002
The main rifle of the British armed forces - heavily redeveloped under the guidance of military experts in Bristol - is again at the centre of concern about its reliability.
Senior Tories have said the Ministry of Defence should consider replacing the Army's main assault rifle if an investigation shows that it still has major problems.
But Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said reports from troops in Afghanistan that the SA80-A2 had been misfiring and jamming would need to be fully investigated before any decision was made.
"I've just come back from time in Afghanistan with the Royal Marines and where we have had a specialist team from the Ministry of Defence and, also importantly, the manufacturers, investigating reports that a small number of the rifles are jamming.
"We have still to get to the bottom of exactly what those problems are before we make any judgment.
"From time to time some of the rifles are jamming but they are operating in really extreme conditions. It's very, very hot and there is lots of sand. And some of the rifles are being affected by the heat.
"But it's not good enough.We have spent a considerable amount of money upgrading this rifle and I don't want to accept second-best.
"We do not want anybody to be facing any more risks out there than they are already."
The original SA80 was suspended from the Nato nominated weapon list in 1997 after soldiers experienced problems such as jamming in extreme weather, and it underwent a ?92 million modification programme, led by the Defence Procurement Agency at Abbey Wood.
The MoD has already spent another ?15.4 million to date upgrading 22,000 of the 34,000 rifles issued to the Army.
In the wake of the new problems, shadow defence secretary Bernard Jenkin said: "It is too early to say whether this is a fundamental problem or something relatively minor.
"But I can imagine the Ministry of Defence is very anxious about it, because there has been a long history to the problems with this rifle.
"If this turns out to be a continuation of the previous problems, I think it is going to be very, very difficult to sustain this rifle in the British Army.
"If you are fighting a war and you hesitate because you haven't quite got the faith in your weapon that you should have, that is obviously fatal, and we can't put our soldiers in that position.
"We did challenge the Government in the last Parliament, when Iain Duncan Smith was shadow secretary of state, that unless they were absolutely sure that the modification would fix it, then they should spend the money on a new rifle.
"Well, this chicken could be coming home to roost."
http://www.thisisbristol.com/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=91146&command=displayContent&sourceNode=86447&contentPK=2083954
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878