In 1944, the British General Staff issued a specification for a new submachine gun to replace the Sten. A successful and reliable design, it remained as standard issue with the British Army until 1994, when it was phased out as the L85A1 assault rifle was phased in. It was tested with the British Army in 1944–1945 as a replacement for the Sten but it did not start to replace it until 1953. The Sterling submachine gun is a British submachine gun. Lever-delayed blowback (Battle Rifle variant)ģ4-round box magazine or 32- or 50-round box magazine from the Sten and Lanchester (Patchett Machine Carbine)
