Big Savings in SA80 Maintenance Effort

UK Defence Logistics Organization, The Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) Land Team at the Defence Logistics Organisation has identified savings of up to 94% in the maintenance effort for SA80 rifles. 
 
Although a tri-service weapon, the usage rate and environment for the SA80 varies considerably. Each service was using a different, calendar-based maintenance routine designed around the previous version of the rifle, the SA80 A1. The savings identified by the RCM team equates to around two million man hours. 
 
The routine included a detailed inspection by an armourer every six months, for the Army and RAF, and every three months for the RN. Owing to a shortage of qualified armourers, the Army was obliged to include part of this requirement in the tasks for the ABRO, at a cost of about