I converted onto the L85A1 back in 1987, when I was stationed in Cyprus. Having fired the L85A2 the weapon, as it stands today after all the mods, is what is should have been back when it entered service. Today the A2 is a solid weapon that has been re-manufactured to alleviate the problems of the A1. I was mightily impressed by the workmanship of the re-manufactured parts and the feel and performance when firing. All the RAF Regiment / Royal Signals instructors I have met absolutely love the A2 and agree that it is the weapon that it should have been when the design entered service.

Nermal, SF does use the weapon. For example when they have to blend in:

SAS operated in Bosnia under the cover of UKLO (United Kingdom Liaison Officers), which was under the direct command of General Mike Rose. As Cameron Spence stated “It didn’t take a rocket scientist, of course, to conclude that the UKLO was not a regular unit.” To help them blend in they were kitted out with SA-80 (L85A1), rather than their more obvious Gucci type weapons. Cameron Spence recounts in his book “All Necessary Measures”
that one of his SAS mates used his L85A1, fitted with a KITE site, to scare the life out of a Croat sniper who regularly took pot shots at UN vehicles. Using their UN Land Rover as bait the sniper couldn’t resist and loosed a round off which hit the road in front of the vehicle. Spence’s mate, who had earlier worked himself into a piece of dead ground, put a round into the brickwork immediately behind the sniper. Spence wrote “The sniper got to his feet in a mad panic and started to leg it to safety. As he ran past the next shell hole, Keith, still concealed in his dead ground, sent another round thumping into the brickwork behind him. The sniper reacted as if he’d been stung by a Hornet; stumbling, falling, picking himself up and running to the next shelter. As he headed blindly past on last piece of exposed wall, Keith
anticipated his trajectory and sent a final round crashing into the ceiling, bringing a cascade of plaster on our man as he barreled past.”

Photographs of SAS (UKLO) in Bosnia with L85A1s are also in Nick
Richardson’s book “No Escape Zone”. Nick Richardson was the Royal Navy Sea Harrier FRS.1 pilot who was shot down on the 16 April 1994 by a Bosnian-Serb man portable SAM while attempting to bomb two T-55s. Richardson fell into Bosnian-Muslim hands and was linked up with the SAS team in Gorazde. Richardson was issued with an L85A1 and together they escaped and evaded through Bosnian-Serb lines and were picked up by a French Special Forces Puma. Photographs in the book show them with their L85A1s about to be evacuated from the landing site and after reaching safety in Sarajevo.

TJ