calling it the L22 instead of the SA80 smdh. You made me double take. Did the brits use the MP5? I thought the L22/SA80 was supposed to take on that roll
I think SA80 is the name of the whole family, whereas the individual weapons in it have various L<number> names, like L85, L86 & L22 in this case.
The MP5 was pretty widely used, especially by special forces, and had already been in service for a while at the time of the L85 & L22's adoption. Part of the idea of bullpups was indeed that they would replace both existing rifles and submachine guns, but in practice that doesn't seem to have panned out, and SMGs continued to be used.
wait does the L22 have the same/longer barrel-length as the mp5???
The MP5 has a 225mm (8.9 in) barrel, while the L22A2 has a 318 mm (12.5 in), so it's a decent bit longer.
