NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Sterling submachine gun

The Sterling submachine gun is a British submachine gun which was in service with the British Army from 1953 until 1988 when it was phased out with the introduction of the L85A1 IW (Individual Weapon). This article does not cite its references or sources. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... ball and hollowpoint 9mm Luger rounds are popular handgun ammunition. ... The word calibre (British English) or caliber (American English) designates the interior diameter of a tube or the exterior diameter of a wire or rod. ... In firearms terminology, an action is the system of operation that the firearm employs to seal the breech (in a breech-loading firearm), and to load consecutive rounds. ... Blowback is a system in which automatic or semi-automatic firearms operate through the energy created by combustion in the chamber and bore acting directly on the bolt face through the cartridge. ... (for paintball markers also)Rate of fire is the frequency at which a specific weapon can fire or launch its projectiles. ... Image File history File links Looking_glass_Hexagonal_Icon. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ... SA80 (Small Arms for the 1980s) is a family of related arms that include the British Armed Forcess standard combat rifle. ...

Overview

In 1944 the British General Staff issued a specification which any new submachine gun should conform to. It stated that the weapon should not weigh more than six pounds, should fire 9 mm calibre ammunition, fire at no more than 500 rounds per minute and be sufficiently accurate to allow five single shots to be fired into a one foot square target at 100 yards. A General Staff is a group of professional military officers who act in a staff or administrative role under the command of a general officer. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The pound (abbreviations: lb or, sometimes in the United States, #) is a unit of mass (called weight in everyday parlance) in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... The word caliber (American English) or calibre (British English) comes from the Italian calibro, itself from the Arabic quâlib, meaning mould. ...

Design

The photos show the Patchett experimental silenced carbine and its pistol grip/trigger group.

To meet the new requirement, Mr G. W. Patchett, the chief designer at the Sterling Armament Company of Dagenham submitted a sample weapon of new design in early 1944. The army quickly recognised its potential and ordered 120 examples for trials. Towards the end of the Second World War, some of these trial samples were used in combat by airborne troops at Arnhem and elsewhere, where it was known as the Patchett submachine gun. Given that the Patchett/Sterling can use straight Sten magazines as well as the normal curved design, there were no interoperability problems. Dagenham is a suburban town in east London, in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, situated 12 miles (19. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Arnhem ( ) (South Guelderish: Ãˆrnem) is a city and municipality in the east of the Netherlands, and capital of province Gelderland. ... This article is about the submachine gun. ...

After the war, with large numbers of Sten guns in the inventory there was little interest in replacing them with a superior design. However in 1947 a competitive trial between the Patchett, an Enfield design, a new BSA design and an experimental Australian design with the Sten for comparison was held. The trial was inconclusive but was followed by further development and more trials. Eventually the Patchett design won and the decision was made in 1951 for the British Army to adopt it. It started to replace the Sten in 1953 as the Sub-Machine Gun L2A1. This article is about the submachine gun. ... The Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) was a British manufacturer of vehicles, firearms, and military equipment, and still exists as an airgun sport manufacturer and distributor. ... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ...

The weapon is constructed entirely of steel and plastic and has a folding butt which folds up underneath. Although of conventional blowback design, there are some unusual features: for example the bolt has sharp grooves around it which cut away dirt in the receiver and help to keep it clean. The magazine follower, which pushes the cartridges into the feed port is equipped with rollers to reduce friction and the firing pin is arranged so that it does not line up with the percussion cap on the cartridge until the cartridge has entered the chamber. The percussion cap or primer was the crucial invention that enabled firearms to fire in any weather. ... Rimmed, centerfire . ...

Sterlings have a reputation for excellent reliability under adverse conditions and (allowing for the fact that a blowback action is used) good accuracy.

The Sterling is almost impossible for left-handed users to operate, due to the inherent asymmetry of the design. In particular, the weapon is designed to be used resting on the right side of the body with the left hand holding the magazine. Spent shell ejection to the right constitutes an additional hazard for left-handed use.

Users

A total of over 400,000 were manufactured. Sterling built them for the British armed forces and for overseas sales, whilst the Royal Ordnance Factories plant at Fazakerley (near Liverpool) constructed them exclusively for the British military. A Canadian version was also manufactured under licence, called the Submachine Gun 9 mm C1 made by Canadian Arsenals Limited. It replaced the later versions of the Sten submachine gun from 1953 onwards. A similar weapon, the "Sub-Machine Gun Carbine 9 mm 1A1" was manufactured under license by the Indian Ordnance Factories at Kanpur, along with a "Sub-Machine Gun Carbine 9 mm 2A1" which is a copy of the L34A1 integrally-silenced version. Still at the beginning of the 21st century, these two weapons are being manufactured by OFB and used by the Indian Armed Forces. The recent start of manufacture by the very same Indian Ordnance Factories of the [[1]] Multi-Purpose Carbine (an Indian licensed version of the Israeli IWI Micro Tavor assault rifle), and plans by the Indian Ministry of Defence to adopt it in significant numbers could however lead to the ultimate dismission of the Sterling gun from Indian service. Royal Ordnance was the state-run arms manufacturer in the United Kingdom which was privatised in 1984 and sold off by the government to British Aerospace (BAe) in 1987. ... Fazakerley IPA: is a suburb of north Liverpool, England, and a Liverpool City Council Ward. ... Location within England Coordinates: , Country United Kingdom Constituent country England Region North West England Ceremonial county Historic county Merseyside Lancashire Admin HQ Liverpool Founded 1207 City Status 1880 Government - Type Metropolitan borough, City - Governing body Liverpool City Council Area - Borough & City 43. ... This article is about the submachine gun. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Indian Armed Forces is the primary military organization responsible for the territorial security and defence of India. ... Caliber: 5. ... The AK-47 is the worlds most common assault rifle. ...

The Sri Lanka Army Women's Corps uses Sterling SMGs as their parade weapon. The Sri Lanka Army is the oldest and largest of Sri Lankas three armed services. ...

About 90 countries purchased various quantities of the gun, including Ghana, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Tunisia and some Persian Gulf states.

Variants

Several firearms with suppressors AR-15 with Gemtech baffle suppressor (ref) A suppressor (popularly but erroneously known as a silencer, because no suppressor silences a firearm completely), is a device attached to a firearm to reduce the amount of noise and flash generated by firing the weapon. ...

In popular culture

The Sterling has appeared in various films and video games. In the Star Wars films, the E-11 Stormtrooper rifle prop was made from the British Sterling submachine gun, with a small optical scope and radiator fins added to give a more futuristic look. Interestingly, the scope was attached facing the wrong direction. This was apparently done intentionally, as every example from the films is attached in this way. The Sterling submachine gun was an SMG in use with the British Army and other forces. ... Star Wars is an epic science fantasy saga and fictional universe created by George Lucas during the late 1970s. ... // This is a list of personal ranged weapons from the fictional Star Wars universe. ... This article or section contains a plot summary that is overly long. ...

External links

The Ordnance Factories Organization is a production organization run by the Government of India, which produces arms, ammunition, and equipment for the Indian military. ... The Ordnance Factories Organization is a production organization run by the Government of India, which produces arms, ammunition, and equipment for the Indian military. ...

References

See also

Categories: Gun articles needing image | Submachine guns | Military equipment of the British Empire The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ... A pistol is a usually small, projectile weapon, normally fired with one hand. ... The Beaumont-Adams Revolver was a . ... The Webley Revolver (also known/referred to as the Webley Break-Top Revolver or Webley Self-Extracting Revolver) was, in various marks, the standard issue service pistol for the armed forces of the United Kingdom, the British Empire, and the Commonwealth from 1887 until 1963. ... Enfield No. ... The Browning Hi-Power is a semi-automatic, single-action, 9 mm pistol. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A carbine is a firearm similar to, but generally shorter and less powerful than, a rifle or musket of a given period. ... Short Land Service musket Brown Bess is a nickname of unknown origin for the British Armys Land Pattern Musket and its derivatives. ... The Ferguson rifle was most likely the first breech loading rifle to be adopted by any organised military force. ... The Baker rifle was the rifle used by the Rifle regiments of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. ... The Enfield 1853 Rifled Musket (also known as the Pattern 1853 Enfield, P53 Enfield, and Enfield Rifled Musket) was a . ... SNIDER-ENFIELD BREECH LOADING RIFLE. The British . ... The Martini-Henry (also known as the Peabody-Martini-Henry) was a breech-loading lever-actuated rifle adopted by the British, combining an action worked on by Friedrich von Martini (based on the Peabody rifle developed by Henry Peabody), with the rifled barrel designed by Scotsman Alexander Henry. ... The Martini-Enfield was a conversion of the Zulu War era . ... The Lee-Metford rifle was a breech-loading British army service rifle, combining James Paris Lees rear-locking bolt system and ten-round magazine with a seven groove rifled barrel designed by William Ellis Metford. ... Lee-Enfield No4 Mk1 with bayonet, scabbard attached The Lee-Enfield was the British armys standard bolt action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle from 1895 until 1956. ... The Fusil Automatique Leger, or Light Automatic Rifle (LAR). ... Jungle Carbine was an informal term used for the Rifle No. ... Line drawing of Guppy 13 pocket cruiser The De Lisle carbine was a British rifle used during World War II. It was based on a Lee_Enfield rifle converted to . ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The Lanchester was a submachine gun used by the British during World War II. History In 1940, with the Dunkirk evacuation completed, the Royal Air Force decided to adopt some form of submachine gun for airfield defense. ... This article is about the submachine gun. ... Joel wants one up his butt. ... An 1865 Gatling gun. ... An early Maxim gun in operation with the Royal Navy 1895 . ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled . ... The Lewis Gun is a pre-World War I era squad automatic weapon/machine gun of American design that was most widely used by the forces of the British Empire. ... The Bren (from Brno (the Czechoslovakian town of design) and Enfield, the location of the British Royal Small Arms Factory), usually called the Bren Gun, was a series of squad automatic weapon/light machine guns adopted by Britain in the 1930s and used in various roles into the 1980s. ... Anti-tank, or simply AT, refers to any method of combating military armored fighting vehicles, notably tanks. ... Ordnance QF 2 pounder Type Anti-tank gun Nationality UK Era WW2 Target armoured vehicles History Date of design 1936 Production period 1936 - Number built Service duration 1936-1945 Operators War service WW2 Specifications Carriage Calibre 40 mm Barrel length 50 calibres Weight 130 kg Ammunition AP Shell weight 2... Polish paratroopers (1st Independent Parachute Brigade) manhandling 6 pdr AT gun The Ordnance QF 6-pounder 7 cwt, or just 6 pdr, was a British 57 mm gun, their primary anti-tank gun during the middle of World War II. as well as the main armament for a number of... PIAT in Canadian War Museum The PIAT, for Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank, was one of the earlier anti-tank weapons based on a HEAT (high-explosive anti-tank) projectile. ... The Rifle, Anti-Tank, .55in, Boys commonly known as the Boys or often and incorrectly Boyes Anti-tank Rifle was a British anti-tank rifle. ... The L6 Wombat, (Weapon Of Magnesium, Batallion, Anti-Tank) was a 120 mm calibre recoilless anti-tank rifle used by the British armed forces. ... A field gun is an artillery piece. ... Ordnance QF 25 pounder Type gun-howitzer Nationality UK Era World War II Target general use + anti-tank History Date of design 1930s Production period Number built Service duration 1930s to 1967 Operators War service Specifications Carriage Fixed trail Calibre 3. ... Congreve rocket from Congreves original work The Congreve Rocket was a British weapon designed by William Congreve in 1804. ... The Ordnance SBML 2-inch Mortar, or more commonly just 2-inch Mortar, was a British mortar issued to the British Army and the Commonwealth armies that saw use during the Second World War and later. ... The United Kingdoms Ordnance ML 3 inch mortar was the standard mortar used by the British army from the late Twenties to the late Sixties. ... The Flamethrower, Portable, No 2 (nicknamed Lifebuoy from the shape of the fuel tank), also known as the Ack Pack, was a British design of flamethrower for infantry use in the Second World War. ...

Contents

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