The UK military holds more than 140,000 weapon sights in its inventory, roughly comparable in number to the approximate 150,000 SA80A2/3 battle rifles in service throughout the country’s armed forces.
Revealed in a parliamentary written answer on 12 March, the UK government stated that as of 5 March, there were 107,671 Sight Unit Small Arms, Trilux (SUSAT) sights and 34,258 Elcan Specter OS4X Lightweight Day Sights (LDS) held across the Ministry of Defence.
The L85 Advanced Combat Optical Gunsights (ACOG) were removed from combat service in 2015, with 18 currently held in stock, the written answer stated.
In January 2022 a Parliamentary written response revealed that the UK had a total inventory of 134,912 SA80A2 variants and 17,900 SA80A3 variants, held across defence.
The UK is embarking on a series of programmes to replace the SA80 battle rifle under Projects Hunter and Grayburn. Project Grayburn is thought likely to go on contract in the Q4 2026 – Q1 2027 timeframe, for around 150,000 weapons, deliverable in batches.
In 2023, under Project Hunter, the L403A1 KS-1 was selected as the Alternative Individual Weapon (AIW) for the UK military’s Special Operations Brigade, and was recently trialed by UK Royal Marine Commandos in Norway.
Running somewhat parallel to this is Project Upham, intended to deliver a new weapon sight into UK service for the outgoing SA80 and the future Armalite-style rifle being acquired under Project Grayburn.
Solutions will include a need for infrared capability, a significant improvement over the current basic zoom optics.
UK military adopts batch of TALON weapon sights
In November 2024 the British Army was announced to be receiving new thermal scopes for SA80A3 and Hunter battle rifles via the TALON thermal imaging sights, with the deal for around 10,000 units.
Other industrial players are known to be looking at optics solutions for the British Army, such as Thales with its EXTRAIM system.
Any weapon sight acquired could also feature on the new 5.56mm “assault machine gun” due to be acquired under Project Shamer, to renew a squad-level capability lost when the L110 A2 Light Machine Gun (LMG), known as the Minimi in UK service, was axed in 2018.
