Author Jonathan Ferguson has what may be the best job title ever. He is the Keeper of Firearms & Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in the United Kingdom. He is responsible for a collection which spans the full history of guns, from medieval times to the latest, most modern designs. He is also a Technical Specialist with Armament Research Services (ARES), a specialist technical intelligence consulting group. So yeah, he knows his stuff.

This book by Ferguson is the second title from Headstamp Publishing, a new publishing firm that seeks to become known for releasing “best-in-class” firearms books. Started by N.R. (Nic) Jenzen-Jones (Director of Armament Research Services), Ian McCollum (of Forgotten Weapons fame), and James Rupley (Photographer and Creative Director of the popular Vickers Guide book series). Their first release, From Chassepot to FAMAS, by Ian McCollum was reviewed in the May 2021 (V25N5) issue of SAR.

Arranged in chronological order, this new book examines the century long route from the earliest bolt-action bullpup prototypes from Thorneycroft and Godsal, to the current issue L85A3 service rifle. While neither the Thorneycroft nor Godsal were adopted, they did earn their spot in history as the first bullpups tested by the British Army. It covers the subject from both a technical aspect, as well as a political approach. Generally, a full chapter is given to each rifle. The SA80 has three chapters, as it has separate chapters for the A2 and A3 upgrades.

Shortly after the end of WWII, Britain again explored the bullpup concept. The relatively well known E.M. 2 (Janson’s Automatic Rifle, .280 inch), as well as lesser-known types such as the Korsak Light Automatic Gun, 7.92 mm, (E.M. 1), and Thorpe’s Automatic Rifle, .280 inch, (E.M. 1 aka ‘Cobra’) are covered in detail. The E.M. 2 and its 280 British (7x43mm) cartridge were actually adopted for British Army service on April 25, 1951. The rifle was given the designation Rifle, 7 mm, No. 9 Mk. I. Exactly six months later, on Oct 25, this decision was put on hold. This was mainly due to the U.S. Army refusing to accept the 7x43mm as a common cartridge, considering it to be underpowered.

Not too many years after firmly stating that the U.S. Army would not accept any round less than .30 caliber (7.62mm), the U.S. military adopted the 5.56mm round.

The SCHV (Small-caliber, high-velocity) concept interested the British as well, so they began to test different designs, finally settling on a 4.85x49mm round. Along with the new cartridge came a new bullpup rifle, the 4.85mm Enfield Weapon System (individual weapon and machine gun). In the end, the 4.85 EWS was not adopted, either. However, it did set the stage for the Small Arms of the 80’s program. (SA80 was the name of the overall program, while the British Army designation was L85A1 for the individual weapon, and L86A1 for the light support weapon.)

The SA80 coverage makes up a little under half of the book. This makes sense as the SA80 family actually saw combat in British service, unlike the previous types. As well, it has been in service since 1985, or 36 years. There is a chapter covering the path leading to the first A1 version, another chapter covering the A2 major upgrade done by HK, and the final chapter that details the current A3 version. 

Ferguson mentions the book The Last Enfield: SA80 – the Reluctant Rifle by Steve Raw (Collector Grade Publications) several times throughout the SA80/L85 portion. I have not read the earlier “Reluctant Rifle” book myself (It is long out of print, and now quite expensive), but the quoted passages indicate that Raw doesn’t think too highly of the SA80 system at all. (To be fair, Raw’s book was released in 2003. The SA80/L85 has been upgraded twice since then.) Ferguson, on the other hand, freely acknowledges that the SA80 had a terrible few years but believes it has now matured into a solid rifle. However, it has been a costly journey. Ferguson factors in the original cost of the A1 and accessories, plus the A2 and A3 upgrades, the unit cost is around US$5200, compared to roughly US$700 for an M4 carbine. This huge cost is especially aggravating considering that a good deal of the issues resulted from bean-counters getting involved in the design process. The quote “engineering by accountants” was mentioned.

As noted above, Headstamp intends to be a premium quality publisher. They use premium quality paper stock that makes the photographs show beautifully. To quote their website, they use “commercial quality, section sewn style binding which allows the book to lay flat.” Three buying options are offered, a Standard edition for $98, a Signature edition for $128, and $250 for the Collector’s Limited Edition (500 numbered and signed). All three options include a faux leather hard cover binding with gold foil embossing, a sewn-in red ribbon marker, and gilded page edges, making this a fine quality book. Also available for purchase is a reproduction of an original E.M. 2 manual. My only minor complaint is that the size of type is quite small, so difficult to read.

This is a wonderful book, a fine addition to your library. Recommended.

I sat quietly taking notes as the Purchase Description was being reviewed, making sure I would capture the important points. The development of a new rifle for the U.S. Military is not an everyday occurrence and I wanted to make sure I understood all of the requirements clearly. The Government speaker went quickly over the next point. He knew that this one rarely enlisted any questions: “The rifle shall be compatible with the multi-purpose Bayonet and attach securely at the bayonet mounting points.” No eyebrows were raised, no questions asked. And why should there be? It was a foregone conclusion that every service rifle would be configured to accept the standard bayonet.

What does this mean to a designer of weapons? For one thing, whatever had been envisioned or planned for the muzzle area of the weapon was now complicated by design constraints. Any muzzle device, no matter how effective in its current configuration, would now have a 0.86 diameter so that the bayonet ring could pass over and ride securely. The fit would have to be loose enough for a quick deployment yet tight enough so there was no rattle. At a prescribed position aft of the muzzle, the gas block or other appendage would need the special T-configuration for securing the bayonet. This would require chamfered corners for a smooth and rapid connection. The rifle would have to be rugged in the muzzle area as well. When the M14 was in development, testing showed that thrusts with the bayonet resulted in damage to the weapon prompting a redesign. There were but few words in the Purchase Description where the bayonet was mandated, yet in an instant, the freedom of design was greatly restricted.

Why in the world do we need a bayonet anyway, I asked myself? During the break I considered other devices that might be better suited to the end of the barrel. How about a stun gun or a Taser? Maybe a pyrotechnic wire cutter or a laser would be better; something, anything that was more “21st Century.” Surely there must exist some new technology that might carry us beyond these design constraints from which we seem to be forever encumbered? I needed to give this more thought and also made a mental note to check how we got to the point of a never-ending bayonet requirement.

Weeks later, while searching my files and other reference sources, I learned that the first bayonet use was recorded in the 17th century. Riflemen wielding a matchlock rifle were protected by a soldier carrying a pike, whose job it was to keep the enemy at bay long enough for the rifleman to reload. When they closed in on the enemy, the rifleman jammed a special “plug bayonet” in the end of the barrel so he could join the pikesmen in combat when there simply wasn’t time to reload.

In the years that followed, bayonet designs were never very innovative but there was one that is remembered for out of the box thinking. Early rifles needed a ramrod and later ones a cleaning rod, so one designer sold the U.S. on a ramrod bayonet combination design. In 1905 this bayonet received some high level attention when president Theodore Roosevelt wrote a letter to the Secretary of War telling him, “I must say that I think that ramrod bayonet is about as poor an invention as I ever saw. As you observed, it broke short off as soon as hit with even moderate violence. It would have no moral effect and mighty little physical effect.” He questioned the need for a bayonet and went on to ask that further studies be undertaken by officers seeing combat in the Philippines and from military attachés who were sent as observers to the Russo-Japanese war. Two American Colonels from the office of the Surgeon General were assigned to accompany the Russian Army in combat in order to study the wounds caused by weapons of modern warfare. Observations on the use of the bayonet would be part of their mission.

The Russian and Japanese armies faced off on three different fronts in battle lines that extended 10 miles, 60 miles, and 80 miles. Nocturnal engagements were frequent and much use of the bayonet was made on both sides, yet the actual number of casualties attributed to the bayonet was a mere 0.3%. In their report, the Colonels concluded: “The experience of the Boer War and that of the present Russo-Japanese war has shown that the bayonet is not yet an obsolete weapon and that we still must reckon with it.”

Reckon with it we did, from the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War right up until the 1950s when the M14 rifle was being developed to replace the M1 rifle, Browning Automatic Rifle, M2 Carbine and M3 Grease Gun. The bayonet used with the M1 rifle did not fit the M14, which got the Army thinking about the requirement for a bayonet. Mr. Amos Bonkemeyer, who was then head of the Light Weapons Section of the Army’s Infantry and Aircraft weapons section, stated the Army “… is considering not using a bayonet with the M14.” This came as a result of a recommendation from Fort Monroe where they reported, “The bayonet is rarely used in combat.” These observations led to seriously consider arming the soldier and Marine with a K-bar knife with no means of attachment to the rifle. This concept met resistance from the troops and eventually the bayonet was accommodated on the M14. The front end of the weapon was redesigned and the stock reinforced to a point where the M14 was tested and determined to be as good as the M1 for bayonet fighting. The M16 that followed met the same requirement.

Resigned to be forever burdened with a bayonet, the Army funded a project to make the bayonet more useful. The soldier needed a saw, a wire cutter, or an all purpose knife far more frequently than those combat situations that required him to affix a bayonet to the end of his rifle. In 1973 a project was funded to develop a multi-purpose Knife-Cutter Bayonet that would perform multiple tasks and also be effective as a fighting tool. A contract was awarded, designs were conceived, and a number of prototypes were built for field trials. Just as the multi-purpose M14 rifle that preceded it, the Knife-Cutter Bayonet proved once again that a product that makes design compromises in order to do multiple jobs ends up doing none of them very well. Their overweight designs were not able to cut double strand barbed wire and were too cumbersome for most practical uses. At the time these studies were undertaken, men had already been sent to the moon, yet these developers were overwhelmed by the challenge to develop a multi-functional bayonet, their final report stating: “Development was terminated when it was concluded that it was beyond the state of the art to develop a single item encompassing all the features stated as essential.”

Only one year after the first “new rifle for the military” meeting, I found myself in a carbon copy of the first meeting. It was another new requirement, this time for a carbine that would also require the accommodation of a bayonet at the muzzle. When they reached the point in the purchase description that would cover the bayonet I thought once again about Teddy Roosevelt, the Russo-Japanese War, Stun guns, Tasers, and Lasers. I turned to a combat veteran next to me and whispered, “Why are we doing this again? Do you guys really need a bayonet?” The answer was short and profound. “George, when the soldier’s weapon no longer works for whatever reason, the bayonet is his last remaining means of defense.” Gee, I never thought about it like that. I don’t feel so bad though. Teddy Roosevelt didn’t get it the first time either.

In SAR Vol. 6, No. 3, December 2002, SAR took the current British infantry rifle apart top to bottom, and analyzed every technical aspect of it. We were not judgmental of the politics or the heritage of this weapon system, nor did we enter into speculation regarding corrections needed. We simply wanted to present an unbiased look at the system and its progression, and that article has been available on the Internet ever since on SAR’s website, and has broken records for downloaded articles in our community. There is a tremendous interest in this rifle, both from proponents and opponents of its adoption, as well as most military services on the planet. How does a bullpup really stand up in true combat service? Iraq and Afghanistan have been the first real, full scale tests of this type system. This is not to denigrate anyone’s service in other, smaller conflicts, but the sheer numbers of these rifles in service in theatre, and the duration of that service, has led to many lessons learned.

The irony of Great Britain herself boxing up her rifles and shipping them en masse to Germany to have them fixed is not lost on this author, and it has led to numerous sessions of light teasing of British friends who were, well, as sporting about it as I am when I have to endure comments about coming from the Colonies. However, the fact is that HK Oberndorf seems to have done the job, and done so quite handily, getting a lot of positive reactions from the boys in the field.

The story is told in other places about how heavily charged the politics of the SA80 have been. All we are covering here is how to ID the parts, and what the upgrades are. Essentially, HK Oberndorf came to the UK and analyzed the SA80A1 and defined the changes they needed to do. It was a short process to define, and eventually HK won the bid. The SA80A1s were taken to HK Oberndorf for their work, and it was about 385,000 rifles that were reworked. The work was started in 2002, and the schedule was to finish all of the work in five years. This means that both A1 and A2 models have been in service concurrently. From all accounts that we have gathered, the A2 model upgrades as instituted by HK, have been a success, and the troops are satisfied.

The changes in parts are detailed in the ID section. There were some changes done to the receiver. The ejection port opening on the A2 receiver body has been enlarged fractionally. One of the locking lugs in the barrel extension has been machined away to provide a guide for ejected cases and to facilitate the larger profile of the A2 extractor. The top surface of the body has been engraved with the HK logo at the rear end.

SAR ID of the parts of the SA80A1/SA80A2 systems.

The NSN part numbers are included for the future reference of those who are either searching for, or need to ID parts on the SA80 systems. The Cadet rifle and many training, Drill Purpose, and other A1 configuration guns remain in the system and are expected to for some time. The first number is for the obsolete A1 style part, noting which models it is appropriate for. The second number is for the upgraded A2 version to help in ordering for upgrade or replacement of the A2 system, and the notation is there for which models it is appropriate for. (Diagrams and NSN numbers are taken from a British Army component identification sheet obtained from a private collector at a firearms show in the UK.)