UK Royal Marines have tested the new L403A1 ‘KS-1’ battle rifle during cold weather exercises in Norway, providing one of the UK Armed Forces’ leading combat elements a step change in lethal capability.
The UK military has been seeking to introduce new personal weapons systems for use in special operations units as well as regular forces. In mid-2021, a contract notice was issued detailing the planned procurement and support of an Armalite-style rifle platform Alternative Individual Weapon (AIW) system.
In a 3 February 2025 social media post, the UK’s Defence Equipment & Support agency, the procurement arm of the country’s Ministry of Defence, said the “modern and high-precision” L403A1 ‘KS-1’ AIW rifles would enhance military capability, particularly in “high-threat environments”.
An earlier 31 January release from the Royal Navy, the parent service of the Royal Marines, said new equipment – such as the L403 rifle and snowmobiles – was being rolled out amid “intensive, extreme, cold weather training” in Norway.
Nearly 2,000 personnel from across the UK Commando Force were reported to be operating in Norway’s mountainous terrain during Winter Deployment 25.
The exercises took place near Camp Viking in Skjold, northern Norway, some 74 miles south of Tromsø.
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By GlobalDataIs the UK looking to replace the SA80?
The 2023 selection of the L403A1 ‘KS-1’ battle rifle as the AIW was conducted under Project Hunter, intended to deliver a new battle rifle for the UK military’s Special Operations Brigade. The programme was thought likely to influence the wider replacement of the SA80A2/A3 bullpup rifles under Project Grayburn.
First entering service in the 1980s, the SA80 bullpup assault rifle has gone through a series of upgrades and iterations, with the SA80A2 being created in 2002 following a mid-life upgrade, followed by the SA80A3 in the mid-to-late-2010s. The latest variant, known as the L85A3, has been gradually rolled out across the British Army.
It has been used by UK forces in recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as more distant conflicts such as the first Gulf War and the unrest in Bosnia as part of UN peacekeeping operations. The SA80 suffered through significant jamming and operational failures when employed in adverse environmental conditions, prior to the introduction of the more recent variants.
Manufactured by Heckler and Koch, the SA80 fires the NATO standard 5.56×44 ammunition.
In January 2022 a Parliamentary written response revealed that the UK had a total inventory of 134,912 SA80A2 variants and 17,900 SA80A3 variants, held across defence.
