L9A1 - what is it and how good is it?

D

Deadman

New member
I was flipping through old editions of the Australian Army magazine and came across a page listing weapons used by the commando regiment of the Aus. Army - HK MP5SD, M16A2 with M203, Accuracy International 7.62 AW, Steyr Aug and the 9mm L9A1.
Who manufactures this pistol and how good is it for combat/counter terrorism?
 
The Sterling Sub Machine Gun. Successor of the STEN gun. Mag finds from the side. By all accounts an excellant SMG. I dont know how good it is for CT ops, but I know South paws hate it because of the mag placement.
 
Sub machine gun? :)
Sorry I obviously wasn't clear enough. The L9A1 is listed as "9mm Self Loading Pistol L9A1" with 13 round magazine.

I know bugger all about gun specifics, but as far as I know any one of the following guns would be a better choice. Beretta 92f (ie 15 rounds over 13), glock 18 with 20 rounds of 9mm, sig p228 with 13 rounds of .357 (would rather have .357 than 9mm personally as both are 13 round pistols), USP45 for reliability.

I'm simply surprised to find that not only are pistols not that important to the Australian Army, but that they then choose to use a seemingly lesser pistol (capacity, caliber).

As I know someone will correct me if I'm wrong. :)
 
The L9A1 is a slightly updated HiPower. New style ambi safety I believe.
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Actually, it is a standard GP35 HiPower. The type designation is common to the Commonwealth nations. It is my understanding that Australia's stock of L9A1 included a hodgepodge of Inglis and FN-Herstal manufacture.
 
Yeah FN manufacture, I looked really closely at the photo of the pistol and barely made out Fabrique Nationale engraved on the side.

Ok so that's the manufacturer sorted out, so would anyone recommend this pistol for combat/counter terrorism work over the other pistols I listed earlier?
 
Ok yeah that makes sense. Now what the heck is the designation for the Sterling?
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The standard infantry Sterling was the L2A3. However, I believe that the Aussies never adopted this in preference to their own F1 submachinegun. The F1 was pretty much a Sterling clone with the magazine well relocated to the top of the receiver like the WW2-era Owen SMG. The only real Sterling adopted by Australia was the integrally suppressed L34A1.

so would anyone recommend this pistol for combat/counter terrorism work over the other pistols I listed earlier?
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There is nothing really wrong with an older GP35 other than the small sights, small thumb safety, and occasionally stiff trigger. These faults can be easily corrected, and for the most part, have been addressed in later models. A well tuned GP35 is extremely user-friendly, in some ways even more so than a good M1911.
 
Now you are talking Dan. I know the Aussie SAS and Recon guys really liked the suppressed Sterling and I remember the Owen odd gun. BHP are excellent guns.
 
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