Aussies troops get US rifles and dump Steyr

B

Bruce in West Oz

New member
In a similar vein to my post re: Glocks -- and from the same newspaper.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Australian rifles miss the mark

CRACK Australian commandos bound for East Timor will get US rifles because the Australian-made Steyr is not good enough.

More than $32 million worth of new equipment, including hundreds of M4 assault rifles, will go to the 4th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment.

The Government spent $200 million equipping the army with the Steyr in the 1990s.

But the Steyr has been criticised because of excessive accidental discharges in East Timor.

The battalion asked for the M4 -- a rugged, cut-down version of the US M16 rifle -- because the Steyr is considered not up to the standard required for commando operations.

The 4th Battalion, recently redesignated a commando unit to work with the SAS, will deploy to peacekeeping duties in East Timor after providing security for the Olympic Games.

A Defence Department spokesman confirmed the unit would go to Timor with the M4.

"The M4 is particularly suited to special forces operation as it can be fitted with numerous attachments, such as a grenade launcher and laser sights," he said.

But the request is an embarrassment for the army, which intended the Steyr to be all things for all soldiers. The M4 request is also a blow to the Government-owned Australian Defence Industries, which produces the rifle under licence from Austria.

While ADI has widely touted the rifle to regional armies, soldiers have criticised it. Its unwieldy gas-ejection system has been known to scorch the fingers of the unwary.

More disturbingly, the rifle has a push-button safety catch and no trigger guard, which increases the danger of the weapon going off accidentally.

There were more than 65 instances of accidental discharges in East Timor. In one case, a senior officer narrowly missed an enlisted man when his weapon went off. Another episode involved an SAS member. All Australian soldiers were retrained in handling the Steyr after a soldier was shot dead in Somalia. Lance-Corporal Shannon McAliney is believed to have died while his comrade was cleaning a rifle (sic).[/quote]

But still we hear, "The military are the only ones trained to properly handle firearms".

B
 
HA!---And I dont like Steyrs either---They look and feel like kids plastic guns and they're funny to hold--I'd sooner have a .303.Or at least an AK 47.
 
Bruce:

A MILITARY RIFLE, without trigger guard, you have to be kidding. As for the fatality due to a rifle discharging "while it was being cleaned", mentioned in another post, oh my, that is a big one. If these Steyr rifles were the Steyr Aug, as I remember, they had a "guick change barrel", so how could the rifle "discharge while being cleaned, when one could hold the dismounted barrel in one hand, and cleaning rod in the other. They were also readilly convertable from right to left hand firing.

Schmit: The answer to your question is most likely NO.

[This message has been edited by alan (edited April 30, 2000).]
 
True, it's the Steyr-Aug

The "trigger guard" as such runs from forward of the trigger to the bottom of the pistol grip. Thus, all the fingers go inside the "guard" and the forefinger is resting on the trigger.

Schmit -- be fun to have one, I agree; but they feel "funny" to hold -- the weight/balance point seems all out of whack.

My personal preference, FWIW, would be for the FN-FAL SLR in 7.62 (.308), the previous Aussie issue.

B
 
The Steyr AUG is a fine weapon, aside from the limitations inherent in the bullpup design. The AUTRALIAN AUG however was a piece of crap from the word go, for the simple reason the Aussie government decided to build the guns in domestic factories and skimped on the QC. I trained some Aussie soldiers in tacs lanes back in 91 in Hawaii and they were using M16A2s borrowed from us and commented on how much more reliable they were than the AUG.
OTOH, I talked to an Austrian expatriate who works out in my gym who was in the infantry there and he loved the Austrian AUG...said it was a very reliable and accurate rifle.
 
I have never even seen an AUG, much less fired one, just seen pictures and read about it. I can see how the wierd trigger guard would tempt careless soldiers to put their fingers on the trigger, it looks like this is the natural way to hold one!
Another wierd thing: as a bull pup design, you cannot shoot the rifle left handed unless you get a very specially modified one. It must be a bummer for the lefties amongst us.
But it is supposed to work pretty good. If it doesn't, them I guess the Australian Q.C. was as bad as Rik Writer above suggests.
 
I had one for a while. It CAN be readily switched betw. left and rt hand operation with insertion of lefty bolt carrier. Look on one, you can see plastic tab covering left side ejection port. Nifty gun, but not meaningfully better than AR which costs a fraction as much. Also, that glass always bothered me. It would be my gun of choice if I were to have a firefight in a hospital.
 
So the Aussies are admitting that they can train neither their Steyr licensed manufacturers nor their soldiers?

Even a door & window fitting manufacturer can make good guns here in Austria...

And Austrian soldiers on patrol in the Golan are more likely to be killed for than by their Steyr AUG.

The 1.6 power integral scope is designed to give militarily usable hits without adjustments over the whole useful range.
 
I am afraid that after they get the ARs they are going to be less than pleased.
During the Gulf, British troops dumped the SA80 and had L1A1s sent out as a replacement... and I believe most of them still have the L1A1s.
Didn't Oz make a version of the FAL?
This would have made a much better replacement for this failed AUG.
I think the .223 would be a dandy caliber for police work - but for military engagements the .308 would be much better suited.
 
George:

Yes, we had a beautiful L1A1.

After the new gun laws in 1996, the Federal Government had the entire armoury of stored L1A1s sold and destroyed. (Cut up for scrap.) We now have NO reserves.

As far as I'm concerned it was an act of treason.

B
 
Well, the Aussie troops I trained were very happy with their borrowed M16s. I doubt they will be disappointed (as long as they buy them from us and don't try to build the guns themselves again.)
 
No trigger guard? Where does the trigger lock go then???

------------------
The most foolish mistake we could make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms; history shows that all conquerers who have allowed their subjected people to carry arms have prepared their own fall.
Adolf Hitler
 
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