HMForces

MILITARY chiefs were last night facing criticism after being forced to buy guns with more powerful bullets to defeat the Taliban.

The Ministry of Defence has spent £1.6million on 440 semi-automatic rifles, which use 7.62mm ammunition.

The order from U.S based company Law Enforcement International followed concern that UK forces’ 5.56mm rounds were unsuitable for battle in Afghanistan.

Because the 5.56mm bullets – used in the standard-issue SA80A2 assault rifle – are smaller and lighter, they are less effective from 300 yards or further away.

The Forums: Best weapon you’ve ever used?

It means insurgents – who use 7.62mm ammunition for their AK47s – back off and shoot at British troops from greater distances. Half of all battles in Helmand are fought between 300 and 900 yards.

Now the MoD has splashed out on the gas-operated LM7 semi- automatic rifles – renamed the L129A1 – which can hit targets up to a mile away.

But the purchase has raised concerns over whether the UK was wrong to give soldiers the SA80 assault rifle in 1986 rather than retaining 7.62mm firearms.

Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, a member of the Commons defence select committee, said: ‘This goes to the heart of the Nato decision back in the 1980s to go for a 5.56mm standard Army rifle. It made the SA80 rifle all the more controversial.

’The realisation that the SA80A2 does not throw a heavy enough round for combat operations opens up the whole question of what is the right standard rifle for the British Armed Forces.’

More News Updates:
Major-General Andrew Mackay says MoD is ‘institutionally incapable’ in Afghanistan
Anger As Senior Royals Snub the First Armed Forces Day
Duty Calls Says Prince William

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.

<img src = “http://content.yellowbrix.com/images/content/cimage.nsp?ctype=full_story&story_id=139749925&id=monsteruk&ip_id=ProQuest+Public&source_id=Daily+Mail%3B+London+%28UK%29&category=UK+Military”/>