Sterling SAR-87

The Sterling SAR-87 was a military assault rifle of the late Twentieth century. The Sterling Assault Rifle (SAR) was jointly engineered by Sterling Armaments Company and Chartered Industries of Singapore in the early 1980s as an advanced version of the AR-18 for the export sales. It was also introduced to the British Armed Forces, who refused it because they were already in the process of adopting the SA80 manufactured by Royal Ordnance Factories. The SAR-87 was a robust weapon based on the well tried AR-18 with the versatility of the M16 rifle. It could also be converted from 5.56x45mm to 9x19mm Parabellum by changing the barrel and bolt assembly, to provide a submachine gun for Police forces. Once again, Sterling Armaments tried to push the rifle, renamed SAR-87, for some more years, but at the end of the 1980s, it was bought out by British Aerospace/Royal Ordnance and closed. Less than 100 SAR-87 rifles were manufactured.

SAR-87
Type	Assault Rifle
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Production history
Designed	1980s
Manufacturer	Sterling Armaments Company
Produced	1987
Number built	Less than 100
Variants	Fixed/Folding Stock, 9mm submachine gun
Specifications
Weight	3.7 kg
Length	95 cm, 75 cm for folding stock variant
Cartridge	5.56x45 NATO
Calibre	.223
Action	Gas
Rate of fire	650 rpm
Effective range	400 m
Feed system	STANAG magazines
Sights	Iron