Insightful Look at Singapore's CIS SAR-80: The Anglo-Asian AR-18

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The history of this gun dates back to the establishment of CIS—Chartered Industries of Singapore (Pte.) Ltd., a wholly Singapore government-owned organization, officially registered with the Registrar of Companies in January 1967 with the goal of allowing the Asian city-state (which had gained independence from the Federation of Malaysia in August 1965) to become completely independent in the field of small arms and ammunition for national defense.

The first firearm manufactured by CIS was the M16-S1, basically the Colt M16A1 produced under license, to replace the L1A1 SLR rifles that the former British colonists had left behind in Singapore and Malaysia. However, the licensing from Colt and the authorizations from the US Department of State only allowed CIS to produce the M16-S1 for the Armed Forces of Singapore.  Nearing the end of the production run, CIS found themselves with a largely unused firearms manufacturing plant on their hands that they were still required to keep running to satisfy the needs of the Singaporean government (such as spare parts or potential new batches of rifles), but whose cost-to-benefit ratio could soon become economically unsustainable.

Their only chance was to enter the global market for military firearms. Civilian-grade firearms aren’t contemplated at all by Singaporean laws (even for export), but manufacturing the M16-S1 for export would require CIS subjecting themselves to authorization from the US Department of State for every potential foreign sale, thus handicapping the company’s capabilities to compete on the global markets. The company had learned this the hard way with the hurdles it had to go through when they sold 30,000 M16-S1s to Thailand. CIS needed another platform they could market, but with very little in terms of internal engineering capabilities, they had to search for one outside of Asia. And they found what they were looking for, of all places, in the country of their former colonists, England.

The Sterling Connection

Designed by Eugene Stoner and Arthur Miller in 1963, and first introduced in 1967 as a production offering, the ArmaLite AR-18 assault rifle can be considered at the same time the least successful and the most influential 5.56x45mm caliber platform of its era. Originally conceived to be “the AK-47 of the western world,” a service rifle that would be relatively easy to manufacture by countries with little industrial base by making use of a simplified working system and largely made out of steel stampings. It came too late to be a serious competitor to the M16, simply due to the fact that the US Government was keen on handing out thousands and thousands of M16 rifles to friendly countries for pennies on the dollar. You can’t compete with something that the American taxpayer is footing the bill for.

ArmaLite thus decided to license out the AR-18 (and its semi-automatic, civilian counterpart, the AR-180) for production to foreign manufacturers.  Initially, the Howa Manufacturing company in Japan received the first contract, but when Japan passed new restrictive laws concerning the export of firearms, Howa had to relinquish the licensing agreement. In 1976, Armalite found a new partner in the Sterling Armaments Company, headquartered in Dagenham, Essex, UK, famous for being the manufacturers of the L2A3 sub-machine gun (SMG), aka the Sterling, known at one time the world’s best overall and one of the most valid for decades after that.

At the time, Sterling had already taken a keen eye on the AR-18 design, going so far as developing a simplified version of the system entirely on their own, This was under the guidance of their chief engineer, Mr. Frank Waters, a former sergeant of the 2nd Para Regiment of British Army, who had been trained by George Patchett, the inventor of the Sterling SMG. With Sterling obtaining a license to manufacture the AR-18, the internal development, designated the Sterling LAR for “Light Automatic Rifle,” became redundant, and was shelved.

The licensing agreement with Armalite didn’t allow Sterling Armaments to re-license the AR-18 design and patent, but when CIS approached the company in its search for a 5.56mm rifle design to manufacture, the LAR design was available. Frank Waters, with the support of CIS, would refine the project, polishing both the outer design and the working system, and making it compatible with an AR-18 trigger group. The final result, called the SAR (“Sterling Assault Rifle”), was put in production by CIS in 1984 as the SAR-80.

A Simple Battle Horse

The CIS SAR-80 is a select-fire, gas-operated, rotating bolt rifle, built around two heavy-gauge deep-drawn stamped steel receivers, painted in a plastic-based matte black finish over a “Sunkorite 259” phosphate casing that gives the gun the typical “crackle” finish of Sterling submachine guns. Far from being just a cosmetic feature, the “crackle” finish is glare-proof and extremely resistant to wear and corrosion.

The lower receiver of the CIS SAR-80 rifle hosts very little in term of controls, outside of the trigger: a magazine release located on one of the two sides depending on the generation and a three-position selector (safety, semi-automatic, full-automatic) located to the left side, slightly above the grip and at easy thumb reach.

Realizing, and partially correcting, the mistake of the original AR-18, the CIS SAR-80 takes standard USGI M16/AR-15 magazines, the ones currently known in some circles as “STANAG 4179.” The grip and buttstock of the SAR-80 are made of black plastic, the same material is used by the quite futuristic-looking, two-halves handguard, with an inner aluminum heat shield. As with the AR-18, only the upper portion of the handguard can be removed by the operator to access the gas piston.

Original factory literature mentions the SAR-80 being also available in a folding-stock version. This stock was made out of metal, coated in a polymer-based paint, and vaguely inspired by the Galil folding stock. (This version is featured in Gary Paul Johnston’s and Thomas B. Nelson’s The World’s Assault Rifles, page 815.) However, the grand total of folding stock SAR-80s ever manufactured amounts, according to some sources, to no more than five demonstration samples. A few SAR-80s, built from parts kits exist today on the US civilian market with folding stocks—these are however original Galil stocks adapted to the SAR-80 receiver.

The upper and lower receivers of the CIS SAR-80 rifles are held together by two captive pins; a rear takedown pin and a front pivot pin, and the disassembly for cleaning and maintenance is as easy as sliding off the takedown pin, breaking up the gun, and sliding the bolt carrier group (BCG) from the rear after removing the charging handle.

The bolt carrier group itself is unmistakably of AR-18 lineage, squared in shape, with a full black parkerized finish, two twin guide rods and return springs, and a rotating bolt with seven positively locking lugs. It strikes the author as odd that Sterling and CIS, wishing to simplify the AR-18 itself, didn’t decide to go with the three-lugs bolt by Maltese-Australian engineer Charles Giorgio (a.k.a. Charles St. George), who used it for his take on the design, specifically the Leader Dynamics T2 Mk.5 rifle, and the Bushmaster M17-S bullpup. It makes sense, however, that CIS may have wanted to retain the seven-lugs design as they were already geared up to manufacture it for the M16-S1.

The SAR-80 is a short-stroke piston-driven rifle; the gas piston is fixed to the rear of the gas block, which also dubs as the front sight tower. As the gun is fired, gas enters into the cylinder piston, activating a rod which impinges on the bolt carrier, starting the rearming cycle. The gas piston is a direct copy of that of the AR-18 but features a front regulator with four positions—three for different conditions of operation, plus a fourth position marked 0 that closes the gas valve to allow the use of rifle grenades with blank cartridges.

The charging handle is housed in a slot on the right side of the BCG body, is of course reciprocating, and can be used as a forward assist if necessary; a prominent guide is cut on the right side of the receiver to allow it to reciprocate, and comes with a sliding dust cover on its rear portion that is vastly simplified from the folding type found on the AR-18.

The dust cover has to be manually closed off after firing (to prevent debris from entering the receiver via the bolt handle slot), it was also one of the most fragile elements of the rifle, and tended to be lost, break, or fall off upon disassembly very often. The CIS SAR-80 does indeed feature a last round bolt open device, but no independent bolt release catch (same as the AR-18/180): when the bolt remains open on an empty magazine, upon slapping a new magazine in, the user must pull the bolt handle slightly backwards to manually load it.

The trigger group of the SAR-80 is an exact copy of that of the AR-18 with no significant difference. Cyclic rate in full-automatic fire ranges between 600 and 800 rounds per minute. The SAR-80 comes with a 4140 Chrome-Moly steel, 18-inch chrome-lined barrel, featuring a birdcage-style flash hider, a matte black manganese phosphate finish, a lug compatible with the M7 bayonet, and four right-hand grooves with a 1:12 twist rate, making it compatible with 5.56×45mm M193 55-grain ball.

The sights on the SAR-80 are likewise very simple: a front post, adjustable for elevation, and a two-position peep aperture rear, adjustable for windage—both are protected by metal wings, basically the same sights as the CIS M16-S1. Optionally, the SAR-80 was available with a dovetailed optics mount for an L2A2 SUIT (Sight Unit, Infantry, Trilux) manufactured by AVIMO Ltd. in the UK, which is the same sight used by many British Commonwealth forces on their L1A1 SLR rifles.

Three Generations, Little Success.

No official information concerning the exact number of SAR-80 rifles has ever been released. Estimates are that the overall production numbers never exceeded 20,000, but this can’t be independently verified. All through its production run, the SAR-80 would incarnate in no less than three different generations, with small differences.

GEN I

The first generation is more easily identified by the words “STERLING ASSAULT RIFLE” stamped on the left side of the receiver. The protective metal wings of the rear sight housing are short and rounded, there are reinforcement discs on both sides of the receivers, a sling swivel mounted on the gas block, a barrel cut for an M16-style clamp-on bipod, and a lever-style pivoting magazine release on the left side of the lower.

GEN II

The second generation changes the latter to a teardrop-shaped magazine release button to the right side of the lower, at index finger reach, with a frontal fencing. The short, round rear sight housing protective wings are changed to a larger, pyramid shape; and the reinforcement disc is located only on the left side.

GEN III

Finally, the third and final generation shifts the sling swivel to a rotating collar on the barrel, eliminates the bipod cut, and changes the original, slightly-curved pistol grip with a front sling swivel hole to a straighter design. Third generation SAR-80s would no longer be marked “STERLING ASSAULT RIFLE.”

Numerous generations would seem to indicate a certain degree of market success, but the SAR-80 had very little, if any. Although tested and certified by the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces), the Asian city-state was already well-stocked with M16-S1s, and procured only a marginal number of SAR-80s to equip rear-line logistic units and, to a lesser degree, law enforcement. Better, but not stellar, sales were achieved to some island countries in the Pacific, and to Somalia. Somali samples are still floating around (some missing their buttstocks) among militant groups in Africa.

Historically speaking, however, the most significant sales of SAR-80 rifles were made from existing stock at a time when it was already out of production, and those went to the Balkans. During and after the Ten-Day War of 1991 that brought independence from a crumbling Yugoslavia, Slovenia was left with very little in terms of armaments; the whole Balkan Wars had, after all, started when the Serbian government decided to disarm the Territorial Defense Forces of the constituting states of what was then the Federative Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. The goal was aiming to make the Yugoslavian National Army (JNA), largely hegemonized by Serbs, as the sole armed force of the country.

Slovenia had to get what was available… and what was available were the SAR-80 assault rifles and the Ultimax-100 machine-gun. Those would remain in service with the Slovenian military until they were replaced with the FN F2000-S assault rifle and the FN Minimi light machine-gun at the turn of the 21st Century. Some SAR-80 rifles were also sold to Croatia, whose war against the Serbian government was longer and substantially more grueling.

In Civilian Clothes.

The CIS SAR-80 rifle has being recently reaching the American civilian market due to the availability of parts kits from surplus rifles coming in from the Balkans. For the author, who lives in Italy, there’s a step less: his gun is a “demilitarized” sample.

Those who are familiar with Italian gun laws (see “Gun laws and gun ownership in Italy,” Firearms News, Volume 77, Issue 3, February 2023) will remember that a “demilitarized” firearm (“Arma demilitarizzata” in Italian) is not the same thing as a U.S. “Demil.” Italy does not have a “once a machine-gun, always a machine-gun” BATFE rule there is no need for a full-auto receiver to be destroyed and then put back together/re-manufactured in Italy. As such, authorized companies (firearms manufacturers and distributors, the equivalent of a SOT in the United States) can legally acquire full-automatic firearms and convert them to semi-automatic operation only for distribution on the Italian civilian market, as long as the National Proofing House of Italy approves the conversion procedure.

A substantial amount of SAR-80 rifles has been converted to semi-auto for the Italian civilian market since 2015 by Nuova Jäger S.r.l., best known as NJ Arms, which is also the company that brought “civilized” Beretta PM-12 sub-machine guns and AR-70/90 rifles to the average Italian shooter. All come from former Slovenian stock, and almost all show mild signs of external wear (the author’s rifle is slightly chipped on the rear right portion of the upper handguard) but are otherwise mechanically perfectly functional, and very smooth shooters.

The SAR-80 is a very simple rifle – perhaps too simple. The author found his SAR-80 easier to field-strip than to put back together, as the reinforcement disc inside the receiver makes it somewhat difficult to slide the bolt carrier group back; and the spring-loaded hold-open lever detent seems to be prone to sliding out of its seat in the receiver, although not completely. However, that last issue is probably due to the rifle’s natural wear and tear rather than to issues with the rifle’s design or its execution. While perfectly functional, this is still a forty-year-old sample that has seen a lot in its life and has not always been treated well. The state of wear on the crackle finish and the plastic furniture proves that.

Nevertheless, the SAR-80’s lack of success prompted Sterling and CIS to try and improve the design, first with the SR-88, then with the SR-88A rifles: apart from outside cosmetics, those rifles shifted from an AR-18 short stroke piston design to a long-stroke AK-type system. None of them, however, was more successful than the SAR-80, and neither saw adoption by the Singapore Armed Forces, which would not replace the M16-S1 until the turn of the century, when CIS—later rechristened STK, or Singapore Technologies Kinetics, and today known as STELS for “Singapore Technologies Engineering Land Systems”— introduced the SAR-21 bullpup rifle.

Ultimately, the reason for the lack of success of the Singaporean/British AR-18 rifles is tied to their times. These rifles were rugged, perfectly functional, and there was essentially nothing that made them substantially inferior to most of their competitors. If anything, the sheer simplicity and the low cost would make them appealing to a long list of potential buyers. However, at this specific time in history, with the world divided in rival geo-political blocks. The criteria by which countries armed themselves were essentially national interest (local manufacturing was privileged) and political alignment to one of the two blocks, and those countries that were not aligned, and/or didn’t have the necessary industrial base to manufacture their own small arms, were often courted by the two sides with cheap, or free, giveaways in terms of weaponry in an attempt to bring them on board. Again, it’s difficult to compete with tens of thousands of M16s (or AKMs) given away by a global superpower for next to nothing, or nothing.

Additionally, even for those countries that could have bought firearms from a third party, the SAR-80 didn’t have the appeal of a big name behind it. CIS was a relatively new and unknown arms company at the time especially with companies such as Heckler & Koch and its roller-delayed revolution; gone were the days of Sterling Armaments’ primacy on the field. The AR-18 may very well be the most influential assault rifle design ever, although some of its derivatives shared the same sad fate of the original.

Shooting Impressions

Testing took place in Sardinia (Italy), on a warm spring day. This allowed for shooting from a typical standing position at ranges between 25 meters (82 feet) to 50 meters (approx.54 yards), all the way to 100 meters (approx. 109 yards). The chosen location provided plenty of freedom of action to experiment with quick reloads and moving while shooting.

Let’s start right away with saying that shooting the SAR-80 will be a pretty unremarkable experience for anyone who is used with the AR-18, AR-180, or Brownells BRN-180 platform. The rifle itself has a whole “retro-futuristic” feeling to it due in no small part to the shape of the handguard. Those who have been into it will appreciate a nostalgic feeling, a reminiscence of times when service rifles made of light alloys, stampings and plastic were a thing of the future instead of a boring every day reality.

This said, despite the size, both of the rifle and of the author (a pretty short individual by American standards), the SAR-80 handles very well and is superbly controllable, with a soft, dull recoil feeling that is modest even by 5.56mm standards. This must have been the feeling that made American soldiers look down to the first M16s as toyish concoctions when they first fired them. I am too young to have lived that moment first-hand, but then again, one can be nostalgic for eras that they didn’t live in. The SAR-80 a gun made to be used by soldiers, and soldiers of any physical build, including shorter Asian conscripts. And it shows.

No malfunction was recorded all through the test. That’s a remarkable feat. It has to be pointed out that reliability is not really the forte of demilitarized firearms; depending on the type of gun and the extent of modifications necessary to turn it into semi-automatic only—the average ratio of malfunctions is generally higher than average. The SAR-80 had none (not with different types of ammunition, nor with different types of magazines, including modern MagPul P-MAGs, something that other demilitarized firearms are somewhat allergic to). This a testament to the general reliability of the AR-18 design and of the solid simplicity of Sterling’s and CIS’s take on it. Maybe it is too simple to “eff” up with extensive modifications?

Now that a limited edition SAR-80, built from parts kits, is available in the USA from TTE Precision Metal Works (TTEPrecisionMetalWerks.com, 763-478-2027), I highly recommend that the reader gives one a shot. It is not a modern rifle by contemporary standards—it must be considered a retro, or a classic, that will work perfectly as a sporting, defensive, or ranch rifle. If it is respected and used for what it is. Any attempt at modernization would need to be seen more like a desecration than anything else. It is simple. It is accurate and reliable enough for a service rifle of the late Cold War. It is what it is, and it certainly is a rare addition to any gun collection. What’s not to like?

CIVILIAN CIS SAR-80 SEMI-AUTOMATIC SPECS

• Type: Semi-auto rifle
• Caliber: 5.56x45mm (M193)
• Capacity: Any AR-15-type magazine
• Operation: Gas-operated, rotating bolt, short stroke piston driven
• Weight: 8.2 lbs.
• Finish: Matte black over “Sunkorite 259” phosphate casing (“crackle” glare-proof)
• Grips: Vertical, polymer
• Sights: Fixed front post, adjustable rear; dovetailed rail for optics on some samples
• Barrel Length: 18 in.
• Overall Length: 38 in. (fixed stock model); 29.1 in. (folding stock model with stock folded)
• Trigger: Single-action

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