Law Enforcement International (LEI Ltd) as Distributor is being awarded a £20 million contract for the Midlife Improvement / conversion of the UK Armed Forces in-service fleet of L129A1 Sharpshooter rifle to the L129A2 variant. The actual producer of the rifle is Lewis Machine and Tool (LMT).
With this contract, first aired in July 2024, the British Army is actually following the footsteps of the Royal Marines Commandos which have already 'shaped' this project and acquired an unspecified number of L129A2 for their own needs.
The A2 is vastly different from the A1 and its most notable feature is the fact that, with a barrel swap, it can employ the 6.5 Creedmore round (6.5x48 mm) that has a flatter trajectory and generally improved ballistics that extend performance by another 200 meters compared to the original 7.62x51mm NATO round.
The A2 also introduces a completely new buttstock, new bipod, new main optic and is issued as standard fitted with suppressor (the HUXWRX QD). The L129A1 was fitted with a Trijicon ACOG 6×48 optic (at least in the Sharpshooter role; it used a scope where issued as weapon for the spotter in Sniper pairs), while the A2 is issued with a Leupold Mark 5 3.6-18×44 scope.
Where the L129A1 featured the LMT SOPMOD collapsible buttstock, while the L129A2 has the fully adjustable .308 DMR buttstock, also from LMT.
Both rifles are direct gas impingement and use the LMT Monolithic Rail Platform design. The A2 uses the MLOK rail configuration as opposed to the Picatinny rail fore-end of the A1. The 6.5 mm upper/barrel is 2 inches longer (18 versus 16).
Overall, the new system represents a huge step forward in capability compared to the A1.
The contract also provides spares and “include the additional procurement of L129A2 rifles needed to maintain the Total Fleet Requirement (TFR)”. The TFR number is not publicly disclosed.
The Royal Marines A2 procurement also included Envision Technology’s Miniature Advanced Rangefinder System (MARS) laser rangefinder / illuminator module with ballistic calculator and thermal sights VooDoo MX by Pixels-on-Target. These items might not be part of the Army’s own order.
Privacy Policy
Powered by © Mobilbyte s.a.s. Information Technology