British Army Equipment in the Later Twilight War

[Fusilier]

I wasn't at all.

[Legbreaker]

I'm not Irish so what I'm saying might not be completely accurate, however from what I can see, Ireland was a member of the Commonwealth up until April 1949.
There appears to be a few exceptions and so forth regarding this status though with Ireland still being able to participate in the Commonwealth Games and it's citizens born prior to 1949 able to claim British citizenship. There's a few other things as well that differentiate Ireland from every other non-commonwealth country and there appears to be a move towards Ireland rejoining the Commonwealth.

[Fusilier]

what I can see, Ireland was a member of the Commonwealth up until April 1949.

Which is why I said over half a decade.

There appears to be a few exceptions and so forth regarding this status though with Ireland still being able to participate in the Commonwealth Games and it's citizens born prior to 1949 able to claim British citizenship. There's a few other things as well that differentiate Ireland from every other non-commonwealth country and there appears to be a move towards Ireland rejoining the Commonwealth.

Those exceptions aren't explicit to only Ireland. A few other states have had the same inclusions but it doesn't make them members or half members or anything like that.

[Legbreaker]

From what I read, only Mozambique has similar status with the Commonwealth as Ireland. Of course that's taken from wiki, so who knows how accurate it is.

[Tegyrius]

While I was poking at 1st Armoured for the Czech book, I noticed that the Royal Engineers have received or are about to take delivery on rather a lot of new heavy equipment (Trojan, Titan, Terrier). How much of that stuff was in development back in the '90s and plausibly could have been rushed to production

- C.

[Legbreaker]

You'd have to say it was at least in development in the mid 90's for it to make the late 1997 cut off for new technology. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible to introduce anything new after the nukes except on a prototype and handmade basis.

[pmulcahy11b]

1st Armored Is this a site I should know about

[Tegyrius]

No specific site, Paul. I was just making a general reference to the research I did on 1st Armoured Division.

Leg - yeah, I just don't know which of those vehicles, if any, started development that early. I know the REME had CARRVs during Operation Telic, so I suspect it's possible at least a few prototypes would have been around in time for the T2k timeline.
- C.

[Legbreaker]

Hmm, with the first production hull of the Terrier only entering production on the 27th of January 2010, I'd say there's absolutely no chance of it, or the other two vehicles even being conceived in the T2K timeline. I tend to estimate that even in wartime you're looking at a minimum of 18 months from design to the first production models. Therefore these particular vehicle would almost need to be on the drawing board even before hostilities commenced and the requirement for them became known.
Of course that's just three vehicle types - you'd have to look at each one individually to work out if it's a possibility (and I think Paul's probably done 95% of that legwork already).

[Tegyrius]

Hmm, with the first production hull of the Terrier only entering production on the 27th of January 2010, I'd say there's absolutely no chance of it, or the other two vehicles even being conceived in the T2K timeline. I tend to estimate that even in wartime you're looking at a minimum of 18 months from design to the first production models. Therefore these particular vehicle would almost need to be on the drawing board even before hostilities commenced and the requirement for them became known.

Terrier was admittedly the fringe case. It looks like Titan and Trojan weren't contracted until after the turn of the millennium, so all three are out. Pity; I have a soft spot for CEVs and ARVs.

- C.

[Legbreaker]

Pity; I have a soft spot for CEVs and ARVs.

You and me both. Probably comes from having to do those jobs by hand back when I was an assault pioneer....

[James Langham]

Small arms

Going back to the small arms, the M16 was also issued to troops undergoing jungle training in the 1980s in Belize.

One reason I was always told that the cadet units were issued the L98A1 was that a semi-auto version was developed but someone then pointed out the ease to convert to full auto (only). This seems to have been forgotten on the A2 version (where the idea still works). The L86A1 (LSW) was however issued. As an interesting aside the cadet iron sight was actually better than the army's! It was adjustable from 100-500m in 100m increments whilst the army's was set to 300 only (both also had an alternative larger aperture).

The Sea Cadet Corps and Air Training Corps STILL have No4 rifles (.303) in drill purpose versions as seen on Remembrance Day parade every year. I'm not sure if they hold any live fire versions.

[Tackleberry]

First post on here so hi all. I last played TW2000 years ago, but have always wanted to get back into it.

Having carried the L1A1 around various Airbases in Germany in the 80's and then had to use the L85 in both the A1 and A2 guises i have a little info on them. The L1A1 was a beast and was difficult for an average shot to accurately hit at 300m. The L85 is much more accurate, but the kinetic energy of the SS109 5.56x45 round is so much less than the 7.62x51, so do you want to hit him and wound him repeatedly, or risk the misses but put him down with 1 shot

The Air and Sea cadets both still use the No8 .22 single shot bolt action rifle, and will for a while yet.
All 3 cadet services use the L98A2 and the L81A1 7.62x51 target rifle.

The UK got rid of all of its L1A1's in the early to mid 90's to Africa, with only a couple of hundred still lying around.

The UK would have benefitted from the Small arms factory at Radway Green, Alsager surviving the strikes, so they would have enough ammo in the UK anyway.

[Legbreaker]

I can't speak for the L85, but I never had a problem consistantly posting high scores with the L1A1 at 300+ metres.
And I was quite small at the time (about 65kgs).

Provided the training is there, anyone should be able to consistantly hit at 2-300 metres with most weapons. If a soldier can't manage that, then they have no business being on the battlefield.

[Targan]

I can't speak for the L85, but I never had a problem consistantly posting high scores with the L1A1 at 300+ metres.
And I was quite small at the time (about 65kgs).

Me too. I was hitting man-sized targets consistently on the range at 600m with the SLR. Not 100% accuracy or head shots every time, sure, but regular centre-of-seen-mass hits at 600m weren't all that difficult. Rain or shine, still air or gusts, 7.62 maintained good accuracy in all conditions. I'd shoot 7.62 over 5.56 any day.