SAR-80 (Singapore)

Caliber: 5.56x45 mm (.223 remington)

Action: Gas operated, rotating bolt

Overall length: 970 mm (738 mm with butt folded)

Barrel length: 459 mm

Weigth: 3.7 kg empty

Rate of fire: 600 rounds per minute

Magazine capacity: 20, 30 rounds

During 1970s Singapore Army used US-designed M16A1 assault rifles. In 1976, a company called CIS (Charter Industries of Singapore , now ST Kinetics), began to develop its own assult rifle with aim to supply these rifles for singapore military and for foreign countries. To save the time CIS invited some engineers from British company Sterling Armament, who used to manufacture US-designed Armalite AR-18 assult rifle, so new Singapore rifle heavily borrowed from original AR-18 design. First prototypes came out in 1978 and the final design was approved by Singapore military in 1984 under the name of SAR-80. This rifle was used to some extent by Singapore Army and also was exported to some cuntries, including Croatia.

SAR-80 is a gas operated, selective fire weapon of simple construction. It uses short stroke gas piston that pushes the massive bolt carrier with rotating bolt. The bolt carrier rides on two guide rods. Each rod has a recoil spring around it, gas piston rod has its own return spring. The receiver is made from steel stampings. Pistol grip, handguards and buttstock are made from plastic. SAR-80 uses M16-style magazines. Gas drive has gas regulator that can be cut off completely to safely lauch rifle grenades from the muzzle.

SR-88 (Singapore)

Caliber: 5.56x45 mm (.223 Remington)

Action: Gas operated, rotating bolt

Overall length: 960 mm (810 mm when butt folded)

Barrel length: 460 mm

Weigth: 3.68 kg with empty magazine

Rate of fire: 700-900 rounds per minute

Magazine capacity: 30 rounds standard (any M16-type magazine will fit)

The SR-88 assault rifle was developed by Chartered Industries of Singapore in the late 1980s. This rifle, also available in carbine version, with shorter barrel and floding buttstock, have seen limited service with Singapore army and was mostly sold for export. At the present time the production of the SR-88 is terminated and it is being replaced in Singapore army by SAR-21 bullpup assault rifle.

SR-88 is a conventional, selective-fire, gas operated rifle. It uses long piston stroke action with rotating bolt, gas piston and gas cylinder are cromium-plated. Gas system featured three positions gas regulator - two open positions, for normal and harsh conditions, and one closed, for launching of the rifle grenades. Barrel is equipped with flash hider, which also served as a rifle grenade launcher. Lower receiver is made from aluminium forging, and the upper receiver is made from steel stampings. Furniture (butt, pistol grip, handguards) is made from plastic. Standard butt is of fixed type, but SR-88 also available with side-folding buttstock. The side-folding carrying handle is mounted at the forward end of the receiver.

Singapore Technologies Kinetics SAR-21 assault rifle (Singapore)

SAR-21 assault rifle

SAR-21 - another view

SAR-21 RIS (Rail Interface System), with reflex-type ("red dot") sightand a detachable vertical foregrip.

SAR-21 field strippedinto major subassemblies

images courtesy of ST Kinetics

Caliber: 5.56x45mm NATO

Action: Gas operated, rotating bolt

Overall length: 805 mm

Barrel length: 508 mm

Weight: 3.82 kg without magazine and accessories, 4.44 kg loaded withmagazine and 30 rounds of ammunition

Magazine capacity: 30 rounds

Rate of fire: 450-650 rounds per minute

Effective range: about 500 meters

The SAR-21 is the latest development of the Singapore's Chartered Industries company, now known as the Singapore Technologies Kinetics division. This rifle was first displayed on public in 1999, at the DSEi '99 defense exhibition. At the present time the SAR-21 is adopted by the Singapore Armed Forces as the standard assault rifle, and gradually replaces the ageing M16S1 (Singapore-made M16A1 rifle), and CIS previous SAR-80 and SR-88 rifles. It is also offered for export military and law enforcement sales. At the present time it's hard to judge this rifle, but the available reports are quitefavorable, stating that the gun is comfortable to carry and fire, accurate,reliable and has low recoil. While SAR-21 is much shorter than the M16 rifle with the barrel of the same length, the SAR-21 has the disadvantage of the right-side only extraction, with no provisions to change it to the left side(unlike most other modern bullpup rifles, like the SteyrAUG, GIAT FAMAS or the IMITavor).

Technical description.

The SAR-21 represents some kind of mainstream in the turn-of-the-centuries small arms technology. It is of bullpup layout, and utilizes the most conventional gas operated, rotating bolt locked action, with detachable box magazine feeding.

The gas system of the SAR-21 is located above the barrel. The long stroke piston is rigidly attached to the bolt carrier. Rotating bolt has 2 lugs and locks into the barrel extension. The return springis partially housed inside the hollow gas piston rod and behind it. The charging handle is located above the gun housing, under the scope / carrying handle unit,and folds forward when not in use. The charging handle does not reciprocate when gun is fired. On the SAR-21 P (Picatinny rail) and SAR-21 RIS (Rail Interface System) versions of the basic design the charging handle is moved to the left side of the gun, leaving the place at the top for the sights / accessory rail.

The housing of the SAR-21 is made from tough, high impact resistant polymer, and consists of barrel section with the barrel / gas system, forearm and sights,upper receiver with the pistol grip and magazine housing, and the lower receiver with the buttplate and the hammer unit inside. All major parts are held together by the push-pins and can be separated for disassembly without any special tools.The upper receiver also incorporates a special safety system, which protects the shooters' face in the event of the cartridge case rupture or explosion.

The safety switch is located at the front of the enlarged triggerguard and is of the cross-bolt, push-button type. SAR-21 can provide 2 modes of fire, single shots and full automatic fire.

The SAR-21 is fed using proprietary 30-rounds box magazines, made from the translucent plastic.

The standard sighting equipment includes an integral 1.5X magnification telescope sight, with the emergency backup open sights formed at the top of the telescope housing. The SAR-21 P and SAR-21 RIS have no integral sights, instead these rifles featured a NATO-standard Picatinny type scope rail at the top of the gun, that can be fitted with wide variety of day and night sighting devices. Another interesting feature of SAR-21is that it incorporates a laser aiming module (LAM, also sometimes referred as a laser pointer) as a standard feature. The LAM is mounted below the barrel, inside the forearm, and can emit either visible or infrared beams. The LAM switch is built into the forearm of the rifle.

The standard SAR-21can be fitted with the 40mm under barrel grenade launchers, either US-made M203 or Singapore-made CIS40GL. The SAR-21 RIS can sport a wide variety of add-on tactical accessories,including vertical "assault" foregrip, tactical lights etc.