Sterling SAR-87

The Sterling SAR-87 is a military assault rifle of the late 20th century. The Sterling Assault Rifle (SAR), which included elements from Sterling's earlier Light Automatic Rifle (LAR) design, was jointly engineered by Sterling Armaments Company and Chartered Industries of Singapore in the early 1980s as an advanced version of the AR-18 for the export sales.

SAR-87
Type	Assault rifle
Place of origin	United Kingdom/Singapore
Production history
Designed	1980s
Manufacturer	Sterling Armaments Company
Produced	1987
No. built	Less than 100
Variants	Fixed/Folding Stock, 9mm submachine gun
Specifications
Mass	3.7 kg
Length	0.95 m (3 ft 1 in), 0.75 metres (2 ft 6 in) for folding stock variant
Cartridge	5.56×45mm NATO, 9×19mm Parabellum
Action	Gas-operated
Rate of fire	650 rpm
Effective firing range	400 m (1,300 ft)
Feed system	30-round detachable STANAG magazine
Sights	Iron sights

It was also offered to the British Armed Forces, who declined it because they were already in the process of adopting the SA80 bullpup design manufactured by Royal Ordnance Factories.

Design

The SAR-87 was a robust weapon based on the well tried AR-18 with the versatility of the M16 rifle. It could also be converted from 5.56×45mm NATO to 9×19mm Parabellum by changing the barrel and bolt assembly, to provide a submachine gun for police forces. Sterling Armaments tried to push the rifle, renamed SAR-87, for some more years, but at the end of the 1980s, it was bought out by British Aerospace/Royal Ordnance and closed. Fewer than 100 SAR-87 rifles were manufactured.