In April 2018, the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) announced that they plan on upgrading the SA80A2 Rifle to the SA80A3. And last 28 October, the MOD announced that they intend to award NSAF limited, which is a UK subsidiary of Heckler & Koch, a contract worth up to GBP75 million (USD95.6 million) to modify and supply 44,000 upgraded 5.56×45 mm SA80 rifles according to a report at Janes.com.

Heckler & Koch’s involvement in the evolution of the 5.56x45mm NATO SA80 rifle started when they were contracted to upgrade the SA80A1 rifle to the SA80A2 when the rifle performed poorly during the First Gulf War. The A2 has a lot redesigns to address the reliability issue achieving better performance although it is still prone to jamming.

In our previous story on this, we mentioned the various components in this upgrade. The A3 upgrade has the following features: a) the upper receiver is modified; b) full length rail system; c) better coating with a “flat dark earth” colour scheme; d) streamlined foregrip; e) 100 grams lighter than  the A2; and f) bracket for low light sight that are smaller, lighter and require fewer batteries.

Also, the SA80A3 will be 100g lighter the also resolves the over rotation issue of the fire selector switch.  The barrel is also free floating for better accuracy. 
This deal is an expansion of the upgrade programme in which there was already 5,000 SA803 units being delivered.

All photos here by the UK MOD.