Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of replacing the SA80A2 and SA80A3 as the standard individual weapons of the Armed Forces in 2030.

The British Army’s projected Out of Service Date for the L85A3 (SA80A3) variant of the L85 rifle family is currently 2030. The replacement for the L85 rifle will be procured under Project GRAYBURN, which is currently in the concept phase with the aim of identifying and understanding the capability requirements. As part of this phase, various rifle calibres are being considered. Performance, interoperability and complexity are some of the factors under consideration. The Army will take measures to mitigate any risk of potential capability vulnerabilities.

Recent Project GRAYBURN progress includes discussions with manufacturers and industry experts to analyse the influence of the Land Industrial Strategy and UK manufacturing on the project.

Due to the current phase of the project, we are unable to provide a formal cost estimation yet. This will be established once the scope, timeline and complexity of the project is confirmed but may be subject to commercial sensitivities.