{"id":51582,"date":"2019-10-31T06:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T19:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=51582"},"modified":"2019-10-30T17:40:32","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T06:40:32","slug":"sticking-to-our-guns-the-story-of-the-austeyr-rifle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/sticking-to-our-guns-the-story-of-the-austeyr-rifle\/","title":{"rendered":"Sticking to our guns: the story of the Austeyr rifle"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

In \u2018Sticking to our guns: A troubled past produces a superb weapon<\/a>\u2019, the latest volume in ASPI\u2019s series of case studies in defence projects, published today, Chris Masters delivers a cracking read about the \u2018funny plastic weapon\u2019 that replaced the Vietnam-era L1A1 assault rifle in the 1980s, the successors to which remain the Australian Defence Force\u2019s primary personal weapon. The following is an excerpt from the book.<\/em><\/p>\n

Introduction: self-sufficiency<\/strong><\/p>\n

A man fires a rifle for many years, and he goes to war, and afterwards he turns his rifle in at the armory and he believes he\u2019s finished with the rifle. But no matter what else he might do with his hands\u2014love a woman, build a house, change his son\u2019s diaper\u2014his hands remember the rifle and the power it proffered.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014Anthony Swofford, writer and former US Marine<\/p>\n

Gun debate can clamour like an angry mob, with noise and passion surging at the forward edge while reason and logic shrink to the rear. This may in part explain the polarity of opinion on Australia\u2019s service rifle, the Austeyr.<\/p>\n

According to one of the engineers closely associated with its development, \u2018Australia should be proud of the Austeyr. It\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve done a ground up design of a frontline infantry rifle that\u2019s now right up there with the world\u2019s best.\u2019<\/p>\n

With equal conviction, a professional instructor at the range at Townsville\u2019s Lavarack Barracks counters: \u2018It\u2019s an older weapons system that hasn\u2019t adapted to current needs. It\u2019s just kind of an older system that has been polished and had attachments added to try and fix those issues.\u2019<\/p>\n

This running battle about the most important piece of kit in Australia\u2019s defence inventory that has dragged on for the past 30 years isn\u2019t only about the weapon, but the industry it springs from. Central to the argument about the capability of the weapon is its sustainability.<\/p>\n

Globalisation doesn\u2019t make the island continent less geographically remote. Nor are the seas and shores less vulnerable. Self-sufficiency in weapons production and maintenance is a goal that\u2019s sensible in peacetime and indispensable in a crisis.<\/p>\n

Another critical goal is the alignment of the three main industry groups invested in the project: the designers, builders and users within the Australian defence estate. Producing a state-of-the-art weapon that will suit a range of uses, and for the space of a generation remain relatively futureproof, is the tallest of orders. When aspirations and objectives fall short, as will likely be the case, the key stakeholders tend to turn on one another. So, behind the battle to build a better weapon is another struggle: to harmonise team effort.<\/p>\n

Another goal that should be unmasked at the outset is what\u2019s sometimes described as \u2018unobtainium\u2019. No matter the expertise and budgetary power applied, there\u2019s no such thing as a perfect weapon. Compromises relating to national capability, general purpose, fleet management and costing will inevitably cast a shadow of disappointment.<\/p>\n

And the frowns will be mostly found on the faces of the soldiers\u2014the ones who count the most. With the very fabric of their life invested in the performance of their personal weapon, the soldier understandably has prime leverage.<\/p>\n

And, while I\u2019m coming close to choking on my own words, it has to be declared that they don\u2019t always know what they\u2019re talking about. As seen too often, inexperience, personal preference, prejudice, fashion and vanity can come into play.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the project managers, design engineers and manufacturers are obliged to mediate myriad demands and complaints while maintaining a cold, hard eye on the evidence.<\/p>\n

The Austeyr story captures all these highs and lows. While it isn\u2019t always appreciated, the people who have built it care about the product of their labour. Like the men and women in uniform, they contribute to the defence of Australia.<\/p>\n

In subsequent chapters, I cover the way the weapon evolved and the arguments about its strengths and weaknesses\u2014I hope without straying too far into a subsuming swamp of detail.<\/p>\n

Criticism of the Austeyr will sometimes, I\u2019m sure, be found to be valid and other times to be unfair. As in life, we need to sift nuggets of reality from the mullock of perception.<\/p>\n

Like a sniper in a hide contemplating the target, we must measure our breath, advance situational awareness and focus.<\/p>\n

An obvious outcome of all that heat generated by all that argument over an individual weapon is an issue of confidence. The Austeyr story isn\u2019t only about barrels and bolts and bullets. It\u2019s also about mindset, expectation management, training and communication.<\/p>\n

Citizens of the future will always look back on the past as a period of lost opportunity. While little can be done to prepare for the unknown unknowns, we can be vigilant about lessons learned from modern and deeper history.<\/p>\n

As eyes and minds and bottom lines turn to the ADF\u2019s new Small Arms Replacement Program, the story of the last major acquisition and its attendant evolution is both interesting and important, cautionary and enlightening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In \u2018Sticking to our guns: A troubled past produces a superb weapon\u2019, the latest volume in ASPI\u2019s series of case studies in defence projects, published today, Chris Masters delivers a cracking read about the \u2018funny …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":822,"featured_media":51585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2613,488,67],"class_list":["post-51582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-austeyr","tag-australian-army","tag-weapons"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSticking to our guns: the story of the Austeyr rifle | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/sticking-to-our-guns-the-story-of-the-austeyr-rifle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sticking to our guns: the story of the Austeyr rifle | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In \u2018Sticking to our guns: A troubled past produces a superb weapon\u2019, the latest volume in ASPI\u2019s series of case studies in defence projects, published today, Chris Masters delivers a cracking read about the \u2018funny ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/sticking-to-our-guns-the-story-of-the-austeyr-rifle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-30T19:00:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-10-30T06:40:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20080519adf8239682_398.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"791\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Masters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Masters\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/sticking-to-our-guns-the-story-of-the-austeyr-rifle\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20080519adf8239682_398.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20080519adf8239682_398.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":791,\"caption\":\"A Reconstruction Task Force 4 soldier patrols the Green Zone north of Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan. 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