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July 23, 2002
   
Update on Britain's jamming 5.56mm bullpup. The Defense Logistics Organization's official report into repeated failures of the UK armed forces' SA-80 assault rifle in Afghanistan has cleared the weapon, saying that the Royal Marines using it were to blame for misfires (due to inadequate maintenance and cleaning). Unnamed senior Royal Marine officers labeled the report a "whitewash". The logisticians found that those weapons cleaned by troops following the manufacturer's instructions performed "highly successfully", while those cleaned by Marines on their own had a significant number of failures. One senior Royal Marines officer said that "the weapon fires properly if you clean it properly: the problem is that it is very difficult to clean when you are conducting military operations." - Adam Geibel