British Use of the AR-15/M16

Last year I had the pleasure of giving a talk at the Cody Firearms Museum’s Arsenals of History Symposium. I’ve been working with my friend Jonathan Ferguson of the Royal Armouries on a research paper looking at British use of the AR-15 platform. My focus for the project has been the user experience, I’ve spoken to over 25 veterans from across the British military who have experience using the AR-15/M16 platform on operations. Chronologically their experiences span nearly 60 years and this somewhat informal presentation gives a brief overview of some of the operations where the rifles have been used from the Indonesian Confrontation right through to the present day.

Some of the photos featured in the presentation

If you’re a member or former member of the British armed forces with experience with the AR-15/M16 platform I would love to hear from you, please reach out via armourersbench@gmail.com. Your help and insights would be invaluable.

Once the project is completed I’ll put together a more in-depth video discussing the history of the UK’s use of AR-15/M16-pattern rifles.

Fighting On Film: SAS: Red Notice (2021)

Merc Month continues with SAS: Red Notice as brand new film about mercenaries who highjack the ‘Eurostream’ train. Based on a book by SAS veteran Andy McNab it stars Sam Heughan, Ruby Rose and Andy Serkis. We watched it so you don’t have to, be warned there is some exasperated swearing. This was a bit of an unplanned added bonus for Merc Month.

The episode is also available on all other podcast platforms, you can find them here.

Here’s some stills from the film:

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Thanks for listening!

Fighting On Film: Bravo Two Zero (1999) & The One That Got Away (1996)

Join us as we take a special look at not one but two films – both looking at the ill-fated SAS mission – Bravo Two Zero. Gulf War films are rare and with the 30th Anniversary of the war upon us we thought it was a good time to take a look at ‘The One That Got Away’ (1996) and ‘Bravo Two Zero’ (1999).