The L64 (also called the ''Enfield Individual Weapon'') was an intermediate

calibre In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore match ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

bullpup layout prototype assault rifle developed in the 1970s. At one time it was known as the 4.85 Individual Weapon, a reference to the calibre of the bullet it fired.

Development

The British Army had considered bullpup designs with intermediate calibre rounds in the 1950s, and officially adopted one of these as

.280 British The .280 British was an experimental rimless bottlenecked intermediate rifle cartridge. It was later designated 7 mm MK1Z, and has also been known as 7 mm NATO, .280/30, .280 Enfield, .280 NATO, 7 mm FN Short, and 7×43mm. Li ...

in 1951 in the EM-2 and Taden gun. However, US intransigence during

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

standardization efforts, and

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

's interest in standards above all, led to the adoption of the 7.62×51mm NATO round. This was significantly more powerful than the .280, and could not be easily adapted to the existing weapons. Instead, the British and Canadian armies adopted the L1A1 SLR, a licensed version of the FN FAL, itself originally designed for the .280. During the 1960s the US found that, as the British had suggested, the 7.62 NATO round was far too powerful to be used in a fully automatic rifle. After considerable wrangling, the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

eventually adopted the

M16 rifle The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-ro ...

, firing the

.223 Remington The .223 Remington (designated as the 223 Remington by the SAAMI and 223 Rem by the CIP) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It was developed in 1957 by Remington Arms and Fairchild Industries for the U.S. Continental Army Command ...

cartridge of much lower power than even the .280. With standardization "broken", the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

once again started researching lighter rounds in the 1970s. These efforts suggested that a round of similar weight as the M16s, but firing a smaller diameter bullet, would offer the same recoil patterns while having much better penetration and ballistics. The result was the .190-inch (4.85 mm) round fitted in "necked down" but otherwise standard 5.56 mm cartridges from the M16. The Royal Small Arms Factory developed a rifle to fire the new round. The new L64/65 "Individual Weapon" was outwardly similar to the earlier EM-2, but adopted a firing mechanism very similar to

ArmaLite ArmaLite, or Armalite, is an American small arms engineering company, formed in the early 1950s, in Hollywood, California. Many of its products, as conceived by chief designer Eugene Stoner, relied on unique foam-filled fiberglass butt/stock fu ...

's latest AR-18 design, which was manufactured in Britain under license by the Sterling Armaments Company from 1975 to 1983. The first examples were available in 1972. By 1976, NATO was ready to standardize on a small calibre round, and testing of the various rounds head-to-head started in 1977. As designed, the British round performed well, but NATO concluded that the

Fabrique Nationale Fabrique Nationale Herstal (), trading as FN Herstal and often referred to as Fabrique Nationale or simply FN, is a leading firearms manufacturer based in Herstal, Belgium. It is currently the largest exporter of military small arms in Europe. ...

's entry based on the 5.56 mm, the "SS-109" gave the "best all-round performance" and was selected. The L64 pattern was later developed into the

SA80 The SA80 (Small Arms for the 1980s) is a British family of 5.56×45mm NATO service weapons used by the British Army. The L85 Rifle variant has been the standard issue service rifle of the British Armed Forces since 1987, replacing the L1A1 Se ...

family of weapons, which entered service with the UK in the 1980s.

Overview

The L64/65 is a gas operated, 4.85mm calibre bullpup assault rifle. It uses an AR18 type operation with an SVT40 type gas piston. The SUSAT sight is robust and reliable.

References

Bibliography

* * Ian V. Hogg and John Weeks – ''Military Small Arms of the 20th Century '' – Arms & Armour Press/Hippocrene – 1977 – * Falklands Aftermath: Forces '85, Marshall Cavendish (1984),

External links

Info of the .19 calibreXL60 4.85mm series
{{DEFAULTSORT:L64 65 Assault rifles of the United Kingdom Bullpup rifles Light machine guns Trial and research firearms of the United Kingdom

Development

Overview

See also

References

Bibliography

External links