News Review: $8m to upgrade Austeyr rifle | ADM Dec 2011 / 2012

1 December 2011

The next stage of Project Land 125 Ph.3C has got under way with approval for an $8 million investment in an upgraded Austeyr rifle design.

“This $8 million investment will produce a qualified rifle design ready for production,” the minister for defence materiel, Jason Clare announced.

Changes to the Austeyr rifle, which will transform it into a platform in its own right, will include:

A new modular design that reduces the weight and improves the balance of the weapon.
The integration of NATO standard Piccatinny rails to allow for a wide range of military off-the-shelf attachments to be fitted to the weapon to provide the flexibility to reconfigure the weapon according to the mission
The integration of a grenade launcher attachment and grenade launcher sight into the rifle.

“The Austeyr rifles that our troops use are very effective,” said Clare. “This project is about making them even better.”

Thales at the Soldier Systems Centre in Lithgow, New South Wales, will do the bulk of the work.