L86 LSW

The L86 LSW, short for Light Support Weapon, is a British squad support gun developed alongside the L85 Individual Weapon rifle of the British Army and adopted with it in the mid-1980s. About eighty percent of its parts are shared with the L85, and it fires the same 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge through the same gas system. To suit a fire support role it has a longer, heavier barrel that is fixed rather than quick-change, a rear vertical grip, a shorter handguard with a lightweight bipod and the SUSAT optical sight. It feeds from a 30-round magazine, with a 60-round magazine also offered, and fires either semi-automatically from a closed breech or fully automatically. The first production form was the L86A1; the improved L86A2 followed to correct problems that troubled early L85 and L86 weapons, and Heckler & Koch carried out the mid-life upgrade in the early 2000s. The L110A1, a version of the FN Minimi, later took over the squad support role, leaving the L86 closer to a marksman platform. Military Factory credits the L85 and L86 family with combat service in the 1991 Gulf War, the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq.