British Army Upgrades
A fire mode selector is located well behind the magazine, on the left side of the receiver. It has settings for “semi-auto” and “full-auto”. A separate safety button is located above the trigger. Though the L85A3 is not ambidextrous. Extraction is only to the right side.
This assault rifle is fed from a 30-round capacity magazines. A prototype of the L85A3, that was revealed in 2016, was fitted with a polymer magazine, developed by Magpul. These magazines were purchased as an urgent operational requirement for operations in Afghanistan. The magazine has a clear round counting window. This handy feature allows to see how much rounds are left in the magazine. This assault rifle is also compatible with other magazines, developed for the L85A2, including two types of steel magazines, used by the British Forces.
The new upper receiver comes with a full-length Picatinny type scope rail. It comes with new 4x magnification scope. The L85A3 can also mount various red dot or night vision sights. Also there are simple iron sights for emergency use. There is a tendency in with the British Forces, that second-line troops are issued with weapons that have only simple iron sights, without the scope. Range of effective fire is around 500 meters using the scope.
Also the L85A3 has got a new foregrip with accessory rails. It can mount various add-ons, such as vertical foregrip, tactical flashlight or laser pointer. The new weapon is compatible with German HK AG36 40 mm underbarrel grenade launcher. It was adopted by the British Forces as the L123A2. The same grenade launcher is used on the L85A2 assault rifle.
The British army Grenadier Guards announced on their Facebook that they have the L85A3 now in service!!!
Credit : Matsimus