Pretty sure the SA80 had massive fucking issues immediately after being introduced, considering the bongs had to shell out money to H&K to basically reengineer the whole platform less than 2 decades after intoduction.
You're missing the point, for all its problems it was still better than an SLR. I went through training with an SA80 A1 and I never had any problems with it, and I put over 1000 rounds through it.
A soldiers life became easier when his SLR was taken away and replaced with an SA80.
Wasnt it because it was only used in training in western Europe, mostly kept inside armored cars and apc's, just a short distance relative to the factory and supply depot's?
Then it was sent to a sandy hellhole in 1991 and failed so hard the British had to contract a German manufacturer to fix a gun design by people who never shot a rifle in their life.
And I'm fucking sorry, but I find it fucking ridiculous that one guy in the platoon has got to carry everyone's spare parts like he's a rpg tank dude.
It wasn't one guy in the Platoon, there were 2 LSW's in the section and they carried spares bolts, and gas parts.
It did fail in the desert but what the lessons the Army learned were that Mortars, GPMG's and Grenade launchers were the real killer, the problems with SA80 were way down the list, and again, weren't really a problem for the infantry who trained around it.
What the Infantry really wanted was more Thermal Imagers, night vision and an upgrade to the Warrior IFV.
when Lindybeige, a guy whose entire output was based on ancient and medieval warfare at the time, did that idiotic "Spandau vs. Bren" video.
You know that Lindybeige video did actually achieve something useful, because the responses tried to deal with the issues he inadvertently raised.
The MG42 didn't really fufill the role of the Squad Automatic Weapon. If the Germans had gone with something like the ZB 26 (which parts of the Waffen SS did) then they wouldn't have had such a need for the STG 44.
Late in the war, the British rather than mess around with a self loading rifle like they had done in WWI, simply issued the infantry with another Bren gun per section, together with more snipers per Bn and the Infantry were happy. The MG42 was not a great squad level weapon, particularly in the attack.
And I'm fucking sorry, but I find it fucking ridiculous that one guy in the platoon has got to carry everyone's spare parts like he's a rpg tank dude.
Also I don't want to labor this point, but if you're in the light role infantry, most of the weight you're carrying is Ammunition for the Mortars, or Machine gun Platoon. A spare firing pin or gas plug isn't going to break your back.