SUSAT Replacement

Happened across this quite by accident- according to Jane's the British Army is going to replace the SUSAT sight mounted on the L85A2 rifle. Before the costly upgrade from A1 to A2 version, the SUSAT was generally regarded as the best bit of the weapon, although a little heavy.

The UK armed forces' L85A2 (SA80A2) assault rifle is to undergo another transformation as the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) starts negotiations to replace the L9A1 weapon sight.

The UK MoD's Future Infantry Soldier Technology (FIST) programme office wants an "improved and lighter" system to replace the United Scientific Instruments L9A1 Sight Unit Small Arms Trilux (SUSAT), currently in use with the SA80A2.

At the moment the favourite for a replacement is the Trijicon ACOG TA31RCO 4 x 32 sight. The deal is apparently worth £200 million pounds. Which is a little odd because the program to upgrade the L85 was worth only £92million. And then there's the little problem of fixing the scope to the weapon.

Another thing that bothers me about this is that the L85A2 is due to be replaced sometime in the next five years or so. Why spend £200 million on a sight for a weapon which is obsolescent? If the MoD has £200 million to spend, why don't they just start buying a brand new rifle for the Army to use? If they aren't going to buy a new weapon now, why not wait for a few years and see what optics are available then? Won't all of that cash will be wasted if they opt for a weapon like the G36 which is designed with its own scope?

I really can't see the need for this. In my experience the SUSAT is an excellent piece of kit- I never had a problem with it and there seems to be no pressing need for a brand new optic right now. Sure, the Trijicon is a little lighter but if 100 or so grams makes that big a difference to the modern British Infantryman then we've got much bigger problems to deal with.

UPDATE - Apparently the problem lies with the tritium gas used to illuminate the sight; the sights are about half as bright as they should be. This does beg the question though- why not simply replace the tritium gas capsules in the sights?