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WW2 Kit used by Iran during the Iran-Iraq War

Very interesting, though not totally surprising.
All that surplus kit had to be sold off cheap somewhere & an M1 Garand will kill you just as dead as a factory fresh assault rifle.

The M2 0.5 calibre Browning is no surprise to see but the British '44 pattern helmet. Have they no shame.
 
Having been all over the Iranian side of the border with Iraq I can tell you that the land mines and booby traps (some call them IED's) were modern for the era.
 
Some second-line units do but this is their main assault rifle now:

Modern Firearms - INSAS

I went on that site, had a look, and read the following " As the 7.62mm self-loading rifles started to become obsolete by the 1980s..," Really? Did the FN (sorry, SLR) become obsolete or was it retired because of America's insistence on adopting the 5.56mm round as NATO standard? Would the British Army have rather retained the 7.62mm round in a new rifle, a redesigned SLR?

Just wondering.

Cheers,
Dan.
 
As we were actually looking at 4.85mm as the original IW calibre prior to NATO selection of 5.56mm, it seems reasonable.
 
As we were actually looking at 4.85mm as the original IW calibre prior to NATO selection of 5.56mm, it seems reasonable.

I should have thought the opposite was true ( 7.62mm wouldn't be retained in the SLR replacement) if Britain was already looking at a new calibre before NATO selection of 5.56mm. Though of course unlike most NATO countries Britain was already using 5.56mm in limited numbers with the M16 issued to special forces and for jungle warfare.

Remember too that 7.62mm was forced on NATO by the US- Britain originally wanted .280 (7mm) fired by the EM2.
 
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I went on that site, had a look, and read the following " As the 7.62mm self-loading rifles started to become obsolete by the 1980s..," Really? Did the FN (sorry, SLR) become obsolete or was it retired because of America's insistence on adopting the 5.56mm round as NATO standard? Would the British Army have rather retained the 7.62mm round in a new rifle, a redesigned SLR?

Just wondering.

Cheers,
Dan.

No, simply put, the SLR was crap.
 
I should have thought the opposite was true ( 7.62mm wouldn't be retained in the SLR replacement) if Britain was already looking at a new calibre before NATO selection of 5.56mm. Though of course unlike most NATO countries Britain was already using 5.56mm in limited numbers with the M16 issued to special forces and for jungle warfare.

Remember too that 7.62mm was forced on NATO by the US- Britain originally wanted .280 (7mm) fired by the EM2.
I think we're in violent agreement here.... I meant that it's reasonable to assume a smaller calibre was wanted.
 
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Thanks for the replies, gentlemen. Every day's a school day on here for me.

So, if I'm interpreting what I'm hearing correctly, there is a view out there that the SLR and the 7.62mm round were obsolete when the British Army adopted them? Or is it something else?

Cheers, Dan.

PS: I don't think the SLR was necessarily crap. Heavy, maybe. But very accurate.
 
Diverting the thread into an SLR fest is now a given!

The SLR was a good battle rifle for its day. The calibre was a bit on the big side - as B6 has already said, the British preference was for.280" to replace .303". The mechanism was simple and robust, the manufacture quality was excellent, it was reasonably accurate and very reliable, although a bit heavy. In comparison with its contemporaries, it was more reliable and robust than the M14, although not as accurate, and longer ranged, more accurate and as reliable as the AK47. It was heavier, more reliable and more robust than the M16.

Far from perfect, and there are now far better rifles available, but for its time a good rifle.
 
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