The Sterling SAR-87 is a military

assault rifle An assault rifle is a select fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge, intermediate-rifle cartridge and a Magazine (firearms), detachable magazine.C. Taylor, ''The Fighting Rifle: A Complete Study of the Rifle in Combat'', F.A. Moyer '' ...

of the late 20th century. The Sterling Assault Rifle (SAR), which included elements from Sterling's earlier Light Automatic Rifle (LAR) design, was jointly engineered by Sterling Armaments Company and Chartered Industries of Singapore in the early 1980s as an advanced version of the AR-18 for the export sales. It was also offered to the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military, military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests ...

, who declined it because they were already in the process of adopting 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 Sel ...

bullpup design manufactured by Royal Ordnance Factories.

Design

The SAR-87 was a robust weapon based on the well tried AR-18 with the versatility of the

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

. It could also be converted from 5.56×45mm NATO to

9×19mm Parabellum The 9×19mm Parabellum (also known as 9mm Luger, 9mm NATO or simply 9mm) is a Rim (firearms)#Rimless, rimless, Centerfire ammunition, centerfire, tapered cartridge (firearms), firearms cartridge. Originally designed by Austrian firearm designer ...

by changing the barrel and bolt assembly, to provide a submachine gun for police forces. Sterling Armaments tried to push the rifle, renamed SAR-87, for some more years, but at the end of the 1980s, it was bought out by

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft manufacturer, aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer that was formed in 1977. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. ...

/ Royal Ordnance and closed. Fewer than 100 SAR-87 rifles were manufactured.

References

* {{Sterling Armaments Company Ltd 5.56×45mm NATO assault rifles 9mm Parabellum submachine guns Assault rifles of the United Kingdom Submachine guns of the United Kingdom Trial and research firearms of the United Kingdom